


painted in flames

by ariquitecontrary (ItsAriyanna)



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Kid Fic, Single Parent Jughead, Teacher Betty
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-22
Updated: 2017-11-30
Packaged: 2019-01-04 04:24:42
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 49,200
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12161481
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ItsAriyanna/pseuds/ariquitecontrary
Summary: He's a business tycoon with the weight of the world on his shoulders. She's his son's teacher, a girl who has never known real responsibility.They shouldn't work. They don't want to work. But it's the things we don't want most, that end up taking us by storm.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Here's a nice little fic that I wrote. No murder, no completely sad or scary shit. This is new territory for me. It's also got three chapters already written so yay. :) It probably won't be that long of a fic, 10ish chapters, but it's something to help get my creative juices flowing. 
> 
> Thanks to both Ten and Tiki for looking this one over. You guys are the freaking best. <3

Betty Cooper liked to get her sleep. If she doesn’t have to absolutely wake up early, then she wouldn’t. She had never gotten any sleep back in highschool and college, so now that she was a free living adult she liked to sleep as much as she possibly could whenever she had the chance. It was all those years of staying up and doing assignments at the last minute that were catching up to her. 

Yet for some reason, she was wide awake at 4:30 AM on a Wednesday morning. She had been tossing and turning all night long and just couldn’t get comfortable. She’d finally given up on sleep at around 4:15 and had now been staring at the ceiling for the past fifteen minutes. She had to be at the school in a couple of hours and she knew that if she was smart she’d attempt to knock herself back out to get any last sliver of sleep she could. Dealing with a bunch of five and six year olds takes a lot of energy and it’s definitely something she shouldn’t be doing on only three hours of sleep, but she’s never been one to think too wisely about things like this. So with a sigh, she gives in to the fact that she’s not going back to bed anytime soon and kicks off her covers as she turns on her lamp and gets out of bed. 

She gets in her shower and puts the water as hot as it can go. The winter months are harsh right about now and she feels like a human icicle. She steps in and allows the hot water to cascade over her body. It feels amazing and it makes her feel more awake and not as groggy as she had just felt a little while ago. She washes her hair, shaves, and runs her loofa over her body. Today’s scent is peppermint and her restroom smells heavenly as she drags the blue loofa across her body. When she’s finally finished she turns off the water and dries off with one of her fluffier towels before putting on her robe. She has a black silk robe that she uses when she’s trying to feel a bit more scandalous, but right now she’s cold and just wants to be warm and covered so she chooses the baby blue fluffy robe she got from Victoria’s Secret instead.

On a normal day she doesn’t have nearly enough time for breakfast. She usually just sticks to grabbing a granola bar on her way out or even a Smores Pop-tart if she wants something sweet. Today though, it’s barely ten past five so she has more than enough time for a good meal. She looks through her fridge at all her options. She has two eggs, leftover Chinese, an empty carton of milk, and some bottled water. With a sigh she pulls out the leftover Chinese and grabs a plate from the cupboard, pouring the rice and sweet and sour chicken onto it before throwing it into the microwave. She knew she needed to go grocery shopping, but she just didn’t have the energy lately. She’d go today for sure. 

She eats her food in silence as she scrolls through her phone. She doesn’t have any cool apps that her friends all have. She only has a Facebook because Veronica had made her the thing herself. She just has her family members and a few close friends from back home on it. She reads a few statuses from everyone and laughs to herself. 

_Archie Andrews: Was going to spend the the night playing some Xbox, but Veronica decided to try her hand at cooking… looks like I’m making sure the house doesn’t burn down!_

_Cheryl Blossom: Back in Paris for the week!_

_Veronica Lodge: Making dinner tonight! So excited._

_Kevin Keller: How do I politely tell my boyfriend that the shirt he got me is something that even six year old me wouldn’t be caught dead in?_

_Alice Cooper: Make sure to grab a copy of the newest Riverdale Register out tomorrow!_

_Polly Cooper: Have kids, they said. Twins? Oh you’re so blessed, they said. It’ll be fun, they said. HELP ME, I SAY._

She likes everyone’s statuses and watches a few funny videos that have been shared as she eats. Shockingly, Chinese food somehow tastes better the next day. Breakfast of champs right here. 

Once she’s done, she throws everything away and cleans up before going to the restroom. Her hair is still a little bit wet from her shower so she blow dries it and then decides to put it up in a simple bun. It’ll probably rain today, just like it always does in the lovely city of Seattle. This week has been exceptionally rainy and gloomy. She knows there’s no reason to even try and fix her hair up. 

She settles on wearing skinny jeans and a white turtleneck. She glances at her clock and sees that it’s only 6:12. The school doesn’t even open its doors for the children until 7:40. She doesn’t really feel like sitting around at home and she could always just go to her classroom and work on getting things ready for the kids. 

By 6:15 she’s out of her apartment and on the rode to the elementary school. She doesn’t live too far away from the school, so leaving late is never a problem for her. Since she’s leaving so early though, it’s a quick ride with hardly any traffic. It’s a lot nicer than having to slam on her breaks every five seconds while simultaneously trying not to roll down her window to cuss out fellow civilians. 

When she arrives to the school it’s 6:45 and the only other cars in the parking lot belong to Moira, one of the custodians, and MaryAnn, the head lunch lady. She parks her car near the entrance and smirks at the fact that she doesn’t have to park in the back parking lot for once. Maybe she should make waking up early a habit. 

She makes her way up to the front steps of the building and stops suddenly at what she sees. 

At the top of the steps, sitting down next to glass doors, is a small child bundled up in a big, black coat. The sight takes her completely off guard. It’s way too early for a child to be here, especially since there are no other staff members on sight. 

“Hey, sweetie,” she says gently, unsure if the child is awake or asleep or even what the situation is right now. She’s surprised when the tiny head pops up and she sees that it’s Jacob Jones. 

“Jacob,” she sighs. “What are you doing here so early? School doesn’t start for another hour.” Jacob just shrugs. He’s a quiet child, hardly ever talks or participates in any class activities. Betty’s never pushed him though. She understands that some kids are a bit shy and that talking in front of large groups makes them uneasy. Now though, she really needs him to talk. 

“Did your daddy drop your off?” She asks again. Jacob nods and looks up at her with his big eyes that were more of a grassy green than his usual diamond blue today. “Well, let’s go inside. It’s a bit cold out here.” She holds her hand out to Jacob and he hesitates briefly before grabbing onto it and squeezing it. His hands a bit cold and Betty’s heart breaks. How long has he been waiting out here? Is this the first time this has happened or is this an ongoing thing? 

She doesn’t know who Jacob’s father is. It’s her first year teaching here and the only reason she knows that it would be his father dropping him off is because of the information sheet that all parents were required to send their kids with on the first week back to school. She doesn’t know where his mother is, but she isn’t in the picture. 

She walks slowly enough that Jacob can keep up with her and his tiny steps are more like little hops next to her. They get to her room soon enough and she opens the door to let him in. He stands off to the side, holding his hands together in front of him and looking around like he isn’t sure what to do with himself.

“Do you want to play?” Betty asks him. He glances over to the ABC mat in the back of the room that has three large treasure chests full of toys. “Come on, I’ll go with you.” She leads the way over to the mat and only then does he follow her.

Betty takes a seat on the letter G and Jacob walks over to one of the treasure chests. He puts a hand on it before looking over at Betty in question. She nods at him encouragingly and smiles, letting him know that he’s more than welcome to whatever is inside of the old thing. 

She pulls her phone out of her pocket and checks the time. It’s not seven just yet so he’ll have more than enough time to play. 

A blue lego falls in front of her and she looks up at Jacob who’s smiling sheepishly down at her. 

“Will you build a castle with me?” 

“Of course,” she grins. She hasn’t played with legos in forever, but the idea sounds really appealing for some reason. “A big one or a small one?”

“What kind of castle would you like to live in, Miss Cooper?” 

She hums out, thinking about it. “I think I’d like to live in a big castle.” 

“I’ll build you a big one!” He sits down and begins to work on placing all of the legos together. He seems to be working all on his own, occasionally only asking Betty if she could please get him another piece. She does as he asks and laughs along as he tells her stories about what kind of castle it is and who will live inside of it. 

Not before long, the castle comes along beautifully and it’s nearing eight o’clock. At 7:50, another child comes into the room and joins their building. As more kids come in though, Betty realizes that she needs to get everything in order for breakfast. 

“Are you ready to go sit down, Jacob?” She asks him. He looks a little sad and she puts a hand on his shoulder in comfort. “It’s okay. We’ll have plenty of time to continue building it later. I promise.” This seems to ease his mind as he puts the unused lego pieces away and then takes his seat. 

This past hour is the most active she’s ever seen Jacob and she’s found that he’s a very bright and funny child. He doesn’t have very many friends, only ever talking to another boy named Christopher, but he’s always seemed very comfortable like that. She makes a note to bring it up to his father later. She’ll have to talk to him today at pickup. He’s usually always on time, so she’s sure he won’t mind talking for a few minutes with her. 

The school day begins and Betty puts on her best smile and teacher face. Overall, it’s a good day. It passes by without issue. No one fights over juice boxes during lunch and everyone actually sleeps during nap time for once. It’s heavenly. When it’s time for her to go wait outside with her class, she makes sure that she pays extra attention to Jacob Jones. She doesn’t want to miss talking to his father. 

As the time goes on, more and more kids leave but Jacob stays sitting on the metal railing by the wheelchair ramps. He doesn’t seem worried or scared that his dad hasn’t come to pick him up like most kids do. Betty remembers when she was a kid and her parents were late to pick her up. She would immediately start to cry, thinking that they forgot all about her. She was dramatic like that. Jacob hardly even seems to notice. 

It’s 5:10 and Jacob’s dad hasn’t come yet. Five o’clock is the cutoff time, after that they’re supposed to call the police. 

Mrs. Wallstrom, a lady with dark black hair and eyes to match, tucks the last of her kids into a car before walking over to Betty and clicking her tongue at Jacob. 

“These parents think we’re running a daycare,” she says with annoyance. “You’d do well to tell his guardian that we’re a school, not a babysitter. Although I doubt that man would even show his face to the likes of us.” She walks off, leaving Betty with her mouth wide open. 

Jacob stands off to the side, looking down and away from her but Betty can still see the way his cheeks redden in embarrassment. 

“Don’t worry about it,” she whispers to Jacob as she puts a hand on his head, running her fingers through his hair in comfort. “I don’t mind waiting a little longer. Did your dad say if he was going to be last today?”

Jacob shrugs. “I don’t know. He said today was an important day at work.” 

Betty just nods. “Well, let’s go inside and call him.”

Just as she’s about to lead him inside, a sleek black Cadillac pulls up in front of the school. Betty doesn’t know who the car belongs to, but then again she never actually does pick up duty. Jacob seems to know the car though, by the way he runs over to it. Betty follows behind him slowly. 

A man steps out of the car. He’s older, at least fifty, but he gives Jacob a kind smile as he walks over to the side door to open it up for the young boy. The man seems a bit startled by Betty’s presence, but he just smiles at her in greeting. 

“Hello, Miss…?”

“Cooper,” she informs him. “I’m Jacob’s teacher. Are you his father?” 

“No, ma’am. I’m Mr. Moores, Mr. Jones assistant.” 

Assistant? Betty’s eyes widen a little bit before she reminds herself that isn’t a very polite reaction. Who has assistants? Important people, surely, but who exactly was Jacob’s father? She hadn’t heard anything about him before. In fact, the snide comment that Mrs. Wallstrom made earlier was the only time she’d ever heard anyone say anything about the man. 

“Oh,” she says, a little dumbstruck. “Well, I was just wondering if maybe I could talk to his father? I don’t remember seeing a specific number for him left behind on Jacob’s registration form.” 

“No, ma’am,” Mr. Moores says. “That’ll be my number on the forms for emergencies and his office number as well. Mr. Jones doesn’t hand out his personal number. You understand.” 

Except she doesn’t really understand at all. What kind of asshole doesn’t give his personal number to his child’s _school_? 

“Okay, well I need to talk to Mr. Jones,” she says, losing her nice attitude. “Jacob was here very early this morning and he had to stand outside all by himself in the cold.” She fixes Moores with a hard glare. Seattle was not the kind of place to leave a child by themselves outside, especially not when it was as cold as it was outside. 

Moores does look a bit embarrassed by this. 

“Mr. Jones had a very early morning,” he says as if that somehow makes it okay. “I was unavailable for personal reasons. I can assure you it will not happen again.” 

Betty just stands there, looking at him in disgust. Is that all? Some shitty promise about making sure it doesn’t happen again? She puts on her big girl shoes and fixes him with a glare, lowering her voice so that Jacob won’t hear her. 

“I sure hope it doesn’t,” she tells him, seething. “Because if I ever see that little boy standing by himself in forty degree weather again, I’ll make sure it’s not you that I’m talking to about it.” 

Moores looks taken aback for half a second before completely losing the fake smile he’d been giving her. 

“I’ll pass along the message.” He tells her before nodding and walking back to the driver’s side of the car and getting in. Betty’s about to walk off when the back window rolls down and Jacob looks at her with a smile. 

“I had fun building castles today, Miss Cooper,” he tells her and he looks so sincere about it that Betty’s heart both grows and breaks at the look on his face. Does his father play with him? Does Moores play with him? Does _anyone_ play with him? He’d seemed so shy and unsure earlier, as if he wasn’t aware that he was allowed to have fun. The thought saddens her. 

“Me, too, Jacob,” she tells him with a smile. “We can play again tomorrow.” 

The little boy grins before waving goodbye to her and sitting back against the seat. Betty watches as the window rolls up and then he’s off. She doesn’t know why, but for some reason she needs to find out more about “Mr. Jones” and who he is. She doesn’t know where to start, but she does know one thing. Veronica probably has a good idea.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for all the incredible comments and love on the first chapter. :') You guys are so amazing and every little comment adds on ten years of my lifespan, soon I will be immortal and can begin my plan to take over the world, mwahaha. 
> 
> Anyway! Tiki and Ten as always are the absolute best for hyping me up. Enjoy this chapter. <3

“You should have heard this guy!” Betty hisses out. Veronica nods along in interest. “He was really acting like it was no big deal that a little boy was left in the cold by himself in _Seattle!_ ”

“Was the kid okay?” 

Betty nods. “But that’s not the point, you know? What kind of father just leaves their kid alone with no supervision?” That’s what was bothering her. She could never do something like that, but apparently this guy had no problem whatsoever. It made her question his parenting skills. She can’t get over the distant way Jacob had seemed to talk about his father. It was so odd. She never heard children talk like that about their parents; as if they were something so distant and far away. Like stars they can only see through a telescope, like something too far to reach.

“He has a personal assistant,” Betty tells her. This gets Veronica’s attention. The brunette looks straight at the camera with a puzzled expression. “Yeah. I know, right?” 

“What’s his name?” She asks. 

“I just know his last name. It’s Jones.” 

“Holy shit,” Veronica screeches. “Jones? As in Jughead Jones?” 

“Jughead?” Betty says with a weird look. That has to be a nickname, right? There’s no way that’s his real name.

“Yeah! How do you not know who he is? Jesus, B, do you live under a rock?” 

Betty frowns. She tries to rack through her brain for something, but she comes up blank. The name Jughead Jones means next to nothing to her and the look she gives her best friend must convey that, because Veronica sighs and shakes her head. 

“He’s this big business tycoon. His father, FP, ran Jones Inc. until he got really sick and then Jughead and his business partner, Reggie Mantle, took over. He’s a big deal. Daddy’s done business with him before.” 

Betty nods slowly, but she’s not really paying attention to Veronica’s words. She’s never cared about businesses and stuff like that, but she understands enough. But rich or not, it doesn’t make what he did to Jacob okay.

“You’d think he’d be able to afford a nanny,” she says under her breath. “Have you ever met him before?” 

“No,” Veronica says with a shake of her head. “You know I don’t like dealing with Daddy’s business side. He speaks pretty highly of him, though. I don’t think he ever mentioned him having a child, though. That’s news to me. I wasn’t even aware that he was married or anything like that.” 

“I tried to see if I could get his number, but his stupid assistant wouldn’t hand it over to me.” 

“Well, you can’t really blame him.” Betty gives her friend a pointed look and Veronica holds one of her hands up in defense. “I’m just saying, I wouldn’t be going around and giving my number out to just anyone if I was him either.” 

“I’m his son’s teacher!” She nearly screeches. “I’m not some random woman that’s trying to sleep with him for his money or something. I don’t know, V. I just have a really bad feeling about him. He doesn’t really seem like a good guy. His son doesn’t deserve to be borderline neglected.” 

“You haven’t even met him! You don’t even know what he looks like. He might be decent, you don’t know. There could be another part to the story that you’re missing here.” 

Betty just shakes her head. She’s not buying that for one second. If he were a decent man, then he would have given the school his personal number like every other parent does. 

“Look, if it’s really bothering you then send a note home with his son saying that you want to have a meeting with him. I’m sure he wouldn’t say no to that and if he does well then, maybe you’re right about there being something wrong with him.” 

“Yeah, you’re right. I think I will.” She doesn’t know if he’ll even read the note or care, but Betty figures that it’s worth a try anyway. 

They spend the rest of the FaceTime call discussing absolutely everything and nothing all at once. Veronica and Archie only live a short drive away from her, Mercer Island to be exact, but Betty hasn’t had time to go visit them in a while. She decides that they should all get together for lunch one of these days. It’s been way too long and she misses them like crazy. 

She orders takeout for dinner and watches reruns of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills before heading to her bedroom to sleep. Her apartment isn’t big by any means, but sitting in it day after day and night after night by herself makes it seem that way sometimes. The quietness that she focuses on before bed seems to be yelling out at her and she sighs before opening up her record player and letting music flood through her room. It doesn’t necessarily make her feel better, but at least she doesn’t feel so alone as she falls asleep listening to Matty Healy’s voice. 

***

The next school days passes by easily. She’s happy to see that Jacob Jones isn’t outside whenever she gets to the school, but she keeps an out for him every five minutes just in case. He doesn’t end up showing up until one minute before the bell rings out for school and she isn’t really sure how to take that either. He’s usually at least ten minutes early, but she’ll take what she can get. 

He spends the day how he usually does, off in the corner by himself, only talking to Christopher every now and then. 

It isn’t until lunchtime that he gets up and walks over to her, Captain America lunch box in his hand.

“Miss Cooper?” 

“Yes?” 

“Can I eat with you?”

Betty looks around towards all the other kids. They’re all sitting in their usual tables, laughing and being messy as they eat lunch. She tries to remember where Jacob usually sits to eat, but with shame she realizes that she had never really paid attention before. She had figured that he must have sat with someone, but now she isn’t too sure.

“Of course,” she tells him with a kind smile. She gestures to the small blue chair that’s next to her desk where kids usually sit either when they need help or when they’re in trouble. Jacob smiles back at her as he takes a seat in the chair. “What do you have to eat today?” 

He opens the lunch box and peers inside before sighing. 

“What’s wrong?” 

“She packed me celery,” he grumbles out. 

Betty can’t help the way she bursts out into laughter. Jacob gives her an affronted look and she tries to get herself under control. It was just so cute. Kids usually hated vegetables and she was glad to see that Jacob was no exception. 

She doesn’t ask him who packed him celery, it’s not really her place, but she does pull a pack of Gushers out of her own lunchbox. “Wanna switch?” 

Jacob’s eyes widen as he gasps. His hand twitches out to grab the snack, but then he stops himself at the last minute. 

“Really?” He asks. “Celery is gross.”

“I like celery,” she confirms. Jacob’s eyes light up at her words and he nods before handing her over his veggies and taking the Gushers from her. She takes a look at the rest of his lunch and sees that he has a sandwich cut up in four squares, a juice box, and a plum. It looks pretty standard to her so at least she knows that whoever’s feeding him, they’re doing a pretty decent job of it. Minus the celery apparently. 

“What do you have for lunch?” Jacob asks her as he jams the straw into the juice box and takes a sip. Betty shows him the chicken salad she’d bought from Wendy’s and he scrunches up his nose at the sight. “Boring.” 

“Oh yeah?” She laughs. “My salad is boring to you?” 

He nods. “You should try putting some skittles in it.” He looks down at the gushers next to his sandwich. “Or maybe a gusher.” He opens up the package and pulls out a red one to hand to her but Betty shakes her head, trying to contain her laughter. 

“Thank you, but I think I’m okay with my chicken.” 

Jacob frowns but shrugs his shoulders and pops the gusher into his mouth, unbothered. 

“Hey, Jacob. If I give you a letter for your dad, could you promise me that you’ll give it to him? Not Mr. Moores, but your father.” She doesn’t trust that assistant. He’d probably crumble up the note and toss it in the trash if he got his hands on it. God forbid Betty try to get in touch with her student’s father. 

He nods. “Okay.” 

“Great!” She pulls the prewritten note out of her desk and folds it up before placing it into Jacob’s lunchbox. “It’s nothing bad, don’t worry. I just want to talk to him about a few things.” 

“Okay,” he says again, uncaring towards the whole exchange. 

“Are you excited for the weekend?” She asks. It’s barely Thursday but she’s already mentally clocking herself out of the week. 

Jacob just doesn’t say anything. He just sits there and looks down. Betty’s heart drops as she realizes that he seems to be sad over something. 

“What’s wrong, Jacob?” 

“I have to stay with JB.” 

Betty raises an eyebrow. “JB?” 

“Yeah, my dad’s leaving.” 

He doesn’t offer up any other insight to whatever’s going on and Betty doesn’t know whether she should continue to pry and further upset him. She briefly wonders who JB is and what their role in Jacob’s life is. She makes a mental reminder to ask Mr. Jones about it if he ever does decide to meet with her. It just doesn’t seem like the conversation she should be having with Jacob. 

“Well, my weekend is going to be pretty boring too,” she tells him. She doesn’t actually know what she’ll be doing, but she doubts it’ll be anything fun either way. Maybe she’ll go see Archie and Veronica if they’re not busy. Jacob doesn’t say anything back and Betty decides what the hell, might as well ask. “Do you wish you were going with your dad?” 

He looks at her for a moment and Betty’s taken aback by all the emotions that are running through his eyes. It looks like there’s so much he wants to say that he doesn’t. She wishes she knew what he was thinking. 

“Yes,” he nods. “Dad says I’m not grown up enough to go.” He pokes at the plum in front of him and Betty suddenly sees red. She remembers what Veronica had told her about Jughead being a pretty important man. Betty doesn’t understand how you could be so important to not include your child in things though. 

Jacob’s always been really well behaved and she doesn’t understand how anyone could ever think of him as a burden. She hopes that Mr. Jones gives her a call, she’d like to give him a piece of her mind. 

The rest of their little lunch passes by quietly and Betty feels uneven throughout the whole thing. A part of her feels really bad for bringing up the whole thing, but another part is glad that she’s discovered this new information. By the time it’s time to start throwing away lunch to get ready for reading, Jacob seems to be his normal self. Betty asks him to help her gather up everyone’s lunch to throw away and he does it with a proud smile, following Betty around with the large black trash bag. He keeps tripping over it every now and then and she smiles down at him every time. 

The rest of the day passes by smoothly, minus the one little girl whose tooth fell out while running around, which started an hour long quest to find it against the white marble floor. Betty’s on pick up duty again and she makes sure to keep an eye out for Mr. Jones’ “assistant”. 

“I’ll bring you some more celery tomorrow.” 

“What?” Betty asks, looking down at Jacob who’s leaning against her leg. 

“I’ll tell Melissa to pack me more celery, because you like it.” 

She should probably ask who Melissa is but Betty’s heart absolutely soars. She almost wants to tear up, having heard that children have the purest form of love. She’s dealt with the brattiest children through her work with heapings of love but never truly encountered such a wholesome child. It shows with Jacob and his kind heart. Betty wants to hug him and she prays that he stays this kind hearted for the rest of his life. So many children don’t. 

The black car she’d been looking out for suddenly pulls up and Betty straightens up. She’s waiting for Moores to walk out of it, but she goes completely blank when instead a man who looks to be about thirty walks out of the passengers side. He’s wearing a black suit and sunglasses even though it’s cloudy outside and Betty’s mouth goes dry. 

_Who the hell is that?_

“Daddy!” Jacob shouts before pushing off of Betty’s leg and running towards the man. It’s the most animated she’s ever heard him sound and Betty watches in amazement as the man bends down to catch Jacob in his arms, lifting him up off of the ground with a smile. 

Daddy? No way. No freaking way. She doesn’t know what she had been expecting whenever she was picturing Jacob’s dad in her mind, but this certainly was not it. For one, this guy was hot. Secondly, he was younger than she thought he’d be. Had she been expecting an old, balding man? Not exactly. But she definitely wasn’t expecting the handsome guy in front of her either. 

The two of them exchange whispers before Mr. Jones looks towards Betty and starts walking over to her. For some reason she feels like backing away from him. His entire demeanor just screams intimidating at her and suddenly she was wishing that she hadn’t mentioned anything about wanting to see him. 

“Hello,” he greets her, voice cold as ice. “I heard you were wanting to schedule a meeting.” She wishes he would take off his sunglasses. Maybe then he would seem less frightening and serious. 

“Y-yeah,” she says, clearing her voice. “Could we maybe talk in my classroom?” 

He simply nods and she begins to lead him inside and away from the prying eyes of her coworkers. She wonders if any of them have actually seen him before. Probably not if the way they’re all ogling him is anything to go by. 

The walk to the room seems so long as it’s filled with absolute silence aside from the heels of their shoes clicking against the tile. 

Jacob jumps off of his father’s hip as they enter the classroom, running towards the table he sits at. 

“Look, daddy!” He all but yells. “This is where I sit.” He plops down into his regular seating and grins at Mr. Jones. “You can sit next to me!” He pulls out the chair next to him and Mr. Jones glances at it, before taking off his glasses and turning towards Betty. 

She has to refrain from doing something stupid like gasping. His eyes look just like Jacob’s and now that she can see his whole face, she sees just how handsome he really is. It confuses her and throws her off guard once again. 

“You heard him,” she says. “Take a seat.” 

It’s funny to watch him try to fit into the small chair and Betty follows his actions, sure she looks just as ridiculous. 

She wants to start the conversation, but not in front of Jacob. There are certain things that she wants to discuss that she’d rather not do in front of her student. It’s unprofessional. 

“Do you want to go play while I talk to your dad, Jacob? You can build me another castle.” This seems to do the trick and he smiles and nods, getting up from the table and walking to the back of the room. 

“So,” Mr. Jones drags out, running the tip of his finger across the table. It should look hilarious with the way his knees are bunched up in front of him, but for some reason it doesn’t. It feels like he’s judging her and her very clean desks. He even picks up his finger to inspect it, but Betty knows he won’t find any dust on it. She cleans her room everyday. “Is there any reason why you harassed my driver about a meeting with me?” 

Her eyes practically bulge out of her head. 

“I did not harass him!” She seethes, embarrassment flooding over her. “I just asked him for your number, which is completely normal you know.” 

He nods slowly. “Well, you got me. I’m here. What is it that was bothering you?” 

He says it like it’s a favor that he’s here with her right now. She kind of wants to kick him over in his little chair. Maybe then the smug, bored tone in his voice would disappear. 

“Are you aware that you left your son outside of an elementary school by himself in nearly forty degree weather the other day?” His lip twitches, the only sign that he’s listening to her at all. “He would have stayed out there for much longer had I not showed up early and the only reason that I showed up that early was because I couldn’t sleep in.” 

“I was only aware of this after Mr. Moores informed me of it. I thought the school would be open at the time I dropped him off, it was an honest mistake on my part.” 

“Did you not wait for him to get inside?” Betty asks in disgust. 

“I had a meeting that day, Miss Cooper, I couldn’t be late for it. I’m sure you understand.” He says it like he’s expecting her _not_ to understand and that’s when she realizes that he’s a complete jerk. He’s sitting here and talking to her like she’s a child, like she’s less than him. 

“Of course, Mr. Jones,” she says, sickly sweet. “I understand. What I don’t understand is why you couldn’t hire yourself a nanny for your son, if you could have obviously hired an assistant for yourself, that way you wouldn’t have to have issues like this. Doesn’t it seem more important that your son be well taken care of?” 

His eyes flash and he glares down at her. 

“Are you trying to suggest something here, Miss Cooper?” 

“Your son said he’s staying with a JB this weekend while you go off somewhere? Who is JB?” 

“Is that really any of your concern?” He’s lost the fake politeness and she loses it right there with him. 

“Considering I’m his teacher, yes. I have any and all reason to know if there’s something going on in one of my student’s lives that could cause them harm.” 

She notices the way his hand clenches into a fist and his lip twitches again. It must be something he does whenever he’s angry. 

“JB is my sister,” he growls out. “You are digging way too deep here, Miss Cooper.” 

“Am I?”

That seems to wash away all his self control. 

“There’s nothing going on here.” 

“Your son is very closed off, Mr. Jones. Have you noticed that at home?” He opens his mouth to say something, but she doesn’t let him get it out. “Or are you too busy leaving on business trips to pay any attention to him?” 

His anger seems to wash away at her words and Betty feels bad for a fraction of a second. She knows she’s coming off a little too harsh right now, but she can’t help it. So far Mr. Jones has done nothing to prove that he’s a decent parent. 

“Do you have children, Miss Cooper?” 

“No?” She says, making it seem more like a question than an answer. She doesn’t know what that has to do with anything. 

“Then I suggest you mind your own damn business about my parenting skills.” 

Her mouth drops wide open. Before she can even stop herself, she stands up from her chair and glares down at him. 

“You’re a jerk.” 

Mr. Jones eyes widen with something that looks a lot like interest and Betty wants to throw herself at him and not in any ideal way. 

“Are we done here?” 

“Oh, we’re done,” she tells him, lowering her voice. “Just know that the next time I find your son outside an hour before school starts in freezing weather, I’m calling the cops on you.” 

His nostrils flare in anger before he turns around to his son. 

“You ready, Jake?” His voice sounds soft and gentle; nothing at all like the one he’d been using with her. 

“Ready, jerk!” He calls out happily and Betty’s mouth drops open while Mr. Jones’ face goes red. She hadn’t been aware that Jacob had been listening in on that part. For a minute Betty’s scared that he’s going to get mad at his son, but she’s surprised when instead he starts laughing. 

His frown completely fades away and his eyes crinkle as he laughs. He looks completely different from the cold man that had just been in front of her and Betty wonders if they could even be the same person. 

“Don’t say that, buddy,” Mr. Jones tells his son as he grabs ahold of his hand, ruffling his curly hair with a large hand. “That’s a grown up word.” 

Jacob just nods, but smiles along with his father. 

“Bye, Miss Cooper!” Jacob waves to her. 

“Bye, Jacob,” she says with a smile that feels way too forced. 

Mr. Jones turns and looks at her, slight smirk on his face. 

“Have a good night, Miss Cooper.” 

She should refrain from doing something completely juvenile like flipping him off. She does it anyway.

***

Betty dances around her classroom, Florence + The Machine playing loudly on the old boombox in her classroom. Veronica had laughed about when she first saw it, but Betty liked it. It reminded her of whenever she was young and in elementary school. It made the room look vintage. Or so she thought at least. 

She sings along to the music as she puts a box of crayons and a blank sheet of paper on each empty desk. Today is Friday and she wants to keep things nice and easy for the kids. Fridays are for fun, not for work. That’s how she liked to look at it. 

She twirls around to head back to her desk and screams as she sees Mr. Jones standing in front of her doorway with an amused look on his face. 

“Can I help you?” She asks, exasperated. “What are you doing here? Is Jacob with you?” 

“No, he’s with my sister already, sleeping in I imagine. She always was a lot cooler with kids than me.” He smiles wistfully before looking back at her. “I’m on my way to the airport. I thought I’d stop by.”

“I found this,” he says, pulling a piece of paper out of his back pocket, “when I was going through my son’s lunchbox yesterday.” Right. She had forgotten about that. She figured that he would just ignore it after their talk yesterday. She definitely had. She didn’t understand what it had to do with anything. “You wanted to see me?” 

“I figured we said all we needed to say yesterday. Or was there more you wanted to add?”

He pauses before letting out a sigh, stepping into the room more. 

“My son really likes you,” he says. “He’s never talked about a teacher or a nanny like he talks about you. He reassured me that you’re an excellent teacher.” 

“Did you doubt that?” 

He doesn’t answer her. “I want to apologize for the way I acted yesterday. I was just taken off guard. Dropping Jacob off early at school was an honest mistake. I really did think that it would have been open already, because I saw some cars in the parking lot but you were right. I should have waited for him to go inside. It was irresponsible of me.” 

She’s speechless. She definitely hadn’t been expecting _that_. 

“I also want to apologize for Mr. Moores and the way he was talking to you. He should have given you my number right away when you told him it was urgent.” 

“Oh,” she breathes out. “Well, thank you for apologizing. I’m sorry I called you a jerk, and you know...”

“For flipping me off?”

 

“Yeah,” she sighs.

He laughs, a breathy sound that makes her want to do something stupid like bat her eyelashes at him.

“Don’t be, Jacob called our dog a jerk last night when he stole his sandwich at dinner then he proceeded to try to find me a quarter for the swear jar. It was… amusing.” 

Betty smiles at that. “You have a swear jar?” 

“Of course,” Mr. Jones says as if everyone in the world should have one in their home. 

“Who has the most money in there?” She smirks at the silence that flows throughout the room. “Should have guessed.” 

“I just wanted you to know,” he says, voice a little softer but serious still, “Jacob is my entire world. I would never do anything to hurt him.” 

She suddenly feels terrible for the words she had spewed at him yesterday. Even when she had seen him with Jacob, it was easy to tell that he loved his son immensely. 

“He misses you,” she tells him. She isn’t sure if she’s crossing a line here by telling him this, but they _are_ talking about his son, her student, so she decides it’s okay. “When you go on your trips, he misses you.” 

“I know,” Mr. Jones sighs out. “I miss him too.” 

“Do you go away on trips often?” 

“No. I try to stay home as much as I can. I usually send my partner on them, but I couldn’t get out of this one. He loves spending time with my sister, but I know it bothers him when I leave for days at a time. There just isn’t much for a child to do at a business meeting.” 

Betty nods. She believes him. His eyes look dark and he lets out a yarm. She wonders if he’s slept at all. If Veronica’s words were to be believed, then he was a pretty hardworking man. She wondered just how much it took a toll on him. 

“Would you like some coffee?” She asks. “I can make you some.” 

“Black?” He asks, looking grateful. 

“Sure.” 

She walks to the back of the room where her coffee pot is, away from the grasps of all her students. She doesn’t want to think about what could happen if one of them got their hands on it. She’s had one of the twins in her class break a vase before. It was heartbreaking to say the least. 

She makes the coffee while Mr. Jones walks around the room behind her. The boombox is still playing the song and she wishes she had turned it off. 

What Kind Of Man comes on and Mr. Jones gives her a funny look. 

“Is this the kind of music you play for your students?” 

“No!” She says quickly, cheeks reddening. “I think the most explicit song I’ve ever played for them was What Makes You Beautiful by One Direction.” Mr. Jones tilt his head at that like he doesn’t understand the words she’s saying. “We’re on the Descendants soundtrack right now actually.” 

“Is that the one with the purple haired girl?” 

“Yeah, Mal. That’s her. It’s actually about the villains kids and the princess’ and prince’s kids and…” she drowns off when she sees the look he’s giving her; a small smile on his face. He probably doesn’t care about some stupid kid movie, she thinks to herself. Just because she likes the movie doesn’t mean that he does.

“Jacob loves that movie right now, I think he wants to be like Jafar's son. He’s been using our furniture to swing around from.” She hands him the coffee and he takes it, sipping at it straight away. “That one and The Lion King.” 

“Lion King _is_ a classic,” she reminds him. 

He laughs. “Yeah, I think he just likes the songs on them more than anything. It drives me crazy. If I have to hear I Just Can’t Wait To Be King one more time…” 

Betty snorts before laughing. It’s interesting to her, that this man who had seemed like a complete asshole at first, had actually turned out to be pretty decent. She tries to really picture him with Jacob, doing business in the kitchen while his son runs around the living room, and it brings a smile to her face. 

“Are you hungry?” She asks. “We have a lounge with a vending machine. I think the closest thing we have to breakfast food would be these really nasty granola bars, but it’s something.” 

“Thank you, but I’m okay. I probably should get going now. I don’t want to miss my flight.” 

“Right,” she nods. “Well, have a nice flight, Mr. Jones.” 

“Jughead,” he tells her. “You can call me Jughead.” 

“Have a nice flight, Jughead.” 

“See you around, Miss Cooper.” 

“Betty.” 

He smiles at her before before lifting his coffee cup in the air towards her and then turning around to walk out of the room. 

“Well,” she whispers to herself, “what an interesting morning.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, thank you to Ten for reading this over. And thank you to everyone who has been commenting and leaving kudos. You guys are the sweetest. <3

“Seriously,” Archie exclaims, slamming his hand down on the table for emphasis. “Who decided that Veronica could cook?” 

She drops whatever expensive kitchen instrument she’s holding and gives him a glare. “Excuse me, it’s not my fault you got me the wrong kind of lettuce.” 

“ _What?_ You burnt the steaks! What does that have to do with the lettuce!” 

“Well, maybe if I had good lettuce, then I wouldn’t have been so discouraged and wouldn’t have gotten sidetracked while cooking!” 

Betty laughs at her two friends as they bicker across the table. It’s always amused her to see them argue, particularly because of their height difference. Archie was about 6 feet tall, and Veronica came to a grandiose 5 feet and 2 inches of whoop-ass. Seeing her angry at him while being so much smaller is just adorable. 

Veronica had promised a lovely dinner for the three of them, but it had been cut short when her bacon wrapped steaks almost caught the entire house on fire. Betty had thought it was hilarious, but Archie hadn’t. Poor guy had to put out three fires that week already. Betty just sent her best friend a smile. At least she was trying. 

They had ended up going to one of their favorite and often frequented (thanks to Veronica), Mediterranean restaurants in downtown Seattle when they realized that the steaks weren’t salvageable. Betty would never say it to Ronnie, but she wasn’t too let down. They probably dodged a much larger bullet going to a restaurant than giving dinner a second chance. 

“Anyway,” Veronica says with a pointed eye roll to her best friend, “did you ever end up meeting with your student’s dad?” 

Betty nods as she swallows her rice. “Yeah, the first meeting wasn’t exactly the best, but I did accuse him of being a shitty father so I guess I deserved it.” 

“Didn’t I tell you? There’s always more to the story than we see at first. Wait, _first_ meeting? Did you guys meet again?” 

“Well, he stopped by my classroom early Friday morning to apologize. We talked things out and I apologized for the things I said as well.” She drags her fork along the plate in front of her. “I think I really jumped the gun on this one. He was nice.”

“Well, I could have told you that. Daddy always has good trust in character and he adored this guy.” 

“Your dad hates me, though,” Archie says. Veronica just looks at him and he scoffs. “Whatever. His judgement is clearly clouded.” 

“Well, I’m glad that you guys talked it out,” Veronica says as she ignores Archie. “It’s important to have a good relationship with your student’s parents. I’m sure it makes everything a lot easier.” 

She’s right. It does make everything a lot easier. So far she hasn’t had a parent hate her and she’d like to keep it that way. She’d seen the absolute horror that had been Mrs. May arguing with a mother. Apparently it was something that had been going on ever since the child entered their school. Betty isn’t sure if she could handle something like that without having a breakdown. She’d never been one to do good under pressure, especially if she was being yelled at. 

“So you’ll never guess who called me about one of my designs…” 

The rest of the night goes by and Betty finds herself having more fun with her friends than she has in a while. It’s hard to think that they’re full on adults now. It seems like just yesterday they were in their first year of college; Veronica and Betty seeing Archie sing on open mic night. That had been one for the books. Veronica swears up and down that she wasn’t giving him bedroom eyes from the front row the entire time, but if you asked anyone else, they’d tell you she definitely was. That night started their friendship-turned-relationship and even though they were dating each other, Betty never felt like a third wheel around them. 

Both of them had tried, countless times, to find her a date, but it had always ended up in a dramatic exit or tears, from the guy not from Betty. Aside from finding each other, her friends had terrible taste in potential dates for her. Besides, Betty didn’t really have time for dating right now. It was her first year teaching and she wanted to make sure she got everything right. The last thing she needed was some guy coming into the picture and messing everything up. Being single wasn’t very much fun, especially not when you had Archie and Veronica in front of you, but it’s convenient and smart. 

It’s Saturday night and apparently Veronica thinks that calls for drinks. Betty’s never really been one to get drunk, not after the Frat Party from Hell, but she decides to have one dirty martini with extra olives. They spend their night walking around downtown and laughing. She’s more than sure they look like a bunch of drunks on their way to a nightclub, but she doesn’t care. Being together again, laughing and drinking, it reminds her of simpler times when none of them had their lives together but they were fine with it. It reminds her of late nights in her dorm with Veronica, sneaking Archie in to watch scary movies and then trying to sneak him back out through the window. She wishes she could go back to those days. Her life isn’t bad now, but she just wishes it could be as simple as it was back then. 

But like all good things, the weekend comes to an end rather quickly. Before she knows it, she’s sitting on her couch Monday morning and she’s painting her toenails as she watches some cheesy horror movie on TV. She doesn’t know why she’s painting her toenails at all, it’s too cold outside to wear sandals. Still though, it’s fun and it’s nice to pamper herself every now and then. She’d go get them done professionally but she thinks that she has more important things to be using her money for, like the still empty fridge in her kitchen. She’s been living completely off of take out these past few days and she knows that she needs to stop. 

She makes a mental reminder to go today after school. She even goes as far as to set an alarm for it on her phone. She needs to go to drastic measures or else she’ll never get it done. 

She’s already dressed for school and she’s had her breakfast, a simple strudel (who’s frosting she sucked out of the pouch since the tart itself took too long for her liking and ate it dry after), but she doesn’t feel like leaving yet. She’s feeling tired today and isn’t really looking forward to teaching at all. She knows that the mood will probably diminish once she actually gets in front of her students, but for right now, she’s just a tired twenty-four year old who just wants to sleep. 

**

Naptime was quite possibly the best invention ever. A lot of schools didn’t do it these days, but Betty thanked her lucky stars that the one elementary school she applied to, still did. There was nothing better than the absolute silence as her twenty kindergarten students slept. 

She places her head against her desk and closes her eyes, trying to see if maybe she could sneak in some rest as well. Just as she was about to drift off, someone taps her arm. She counted to three before opening her eyes, hoping that she wasn’t about to be told that someone had an accident in their mat again. 

“Jacob,” she says in surprise when she sees the curly haired boy in front of her. “Hey, buddy. What’s up?” 

“I can’t sleep,” he whispers to her, cautious of all his other classmates. 

“Why not?” 

He shrugs. “I’m not tired.” 

Well, alright. It’s a good enough reason and Betty just nods, not having anything else to say to it. The lights are off in the room so that the other kids won’t be bothered, so she can’t really send him to the treasure box to play. 

“Would you like to color with me?” She asks him. Her light on her desk is on like it always is, and it’s just enough light that he’ll be able to see the colors and whatever he decides to draw. He nods at her with a smile, taking his seat in the small chair and waiting patiently as she grabs a pack of colors and two pieces of paper out of her desk drawer. 

“How was your weekend, Miss Cooper?” He asks her as he begins to doodle on the sheet with a blue crayon. 

“It was fun. I ate dinner with my best friends. How was yours?” 

He hums out in thought. “It was okay. JB took me to the park and she let me stay up late.” His eyes widen and he looks at her in fear. “Don’t tell daddy!” 

“Don’t worry, it’ll be our little secret.” She smiles at him and it seems to ease his sudden fear as he nods in satisfaction. “Did you have fun with JB?” She’s still curious about Jughead’s sister; not in a bad way, she’s just always been a curious person when it came to other people. 

“Yeah. She lets me eat sweets.” He says it like it’s the deciding factor in whether or not she’s great and Betty supposes that maybe that’s the truth when you’re a kid. She remembers favoring her eldest brother over Polly as a child because he would let her have sweets at ten o’clock whereas Polly wouldn’t. It was just a kid thing. 

“Do you like sweets?” 

He nods. “Daddy says they’re bad for my teeth, but I like them.” 

Well, that explains why he’d been packed a plum and some celery last week. They’ve eaten lunch together since that day and Betty always hands him over some Gushers or a Fruit Roll-Up or cookie and he gives her his vegetables. She wonders what Jughead would say if he knew she was sneaking his son sweets. She momentarily feels bad, but then shakes it off. No kid should be forced to eat celery for a snack. 

“May I see the green?” 

She hands it over to him, taking his own blue for a switch. She’s really only drawing little colorful dots everywhere on the page in different colors and different sizes. She’s never been an artist and her ability goes about as far as being able to draw some lopsided stick figures. 

“What are you drawing?” She asks as she turns her head to see, but Jacob snatches the paper away from her gaze. 

“It’s not finished yet,” he tells her, not once stopping his coloring. Betty just smiles and nods in understanding. 

They sit there and color for the rest of naptime, Jacob will occasionally ask her for a specific color, but he never once takes away his eyes from the picture in front of him. Betty figures that whatever he’s working on must be pretty freaking special to him. 

She tells him when there’s only five minutes left of naptime and she watches as he grabs a yellow crayon and begins to scribble wildly. As soon as he’s finished, he lets the crayon roll away as he sighs and leans back into his chair like he just finished drawing the Mona Lisa. It makes Betty laugh. 

“May I see it now?” 

“Yes!” He grabs it though and holds it against his chest protectively. “It’s for you.” And then he’s handing her the paper and looking down at his shoes in what seems to be embarrassment. Betty doesn’t know why he does that, her students draw pictures for her all the time. She even has a little wall of frames in her classroom of everything they’ve drawn her over the past few months. 

Although, when she sees the picture, she lets out a tiny gasp. Jacob had drawn her and him standing outside on a hill, the basic background for a child’s drawing, but he also drew what seemed to be Jughead to the side, leaving Jacob in the middle of the two adults. 

“I drew my two favorite people,” he tells her softly and Betty looks over at him with nearly wet eyes. She’s used to getting pictures of butterflies or stick figures, maybe the occasional blue sky and green hills, but never something like this; something with so much meaning behind it for a little kid. Her heart grows as Jacob refers to her as one of his favorite people. She knows that kids can sometimes get attached to their teachers just from the familiarity of them, but Jacob didn’t exactly seem like that. He seemed to mean it and that made it even more special. 

“Thank you, Jacob. I love it.” 

“You do?” 

She nods. “In fact, I love it so much, that I’m going to put it on my fridge back at home. Would that be okay with you?” 

His eyes brighten up as he sits up straight and nods eagerly. Betty’s fridge has a few things on it; a picture of her, Archie, and Veronica at a bar, a calendar, and a few random little magnets, but it’s missing color and meaning, which is exactly what Jacob had just given her. 

“Yes!” He tells her. “That’s okay!” 

She smiles and lifts her hand up for a high five, which he gladly takes part in. 

“Okay, ready to wake everyone up?” He nods and she stands up, holding her hand out to him, and then they walk over to the lightswitch together and turn it on, waking up the rest of the class. 

 

Jughead’s late again. Betty doesn’t feel as angry as she did the first time he was late, but instead she feels a bit worried. She didn’t think he’d do this again so soon, but yet here she is with Jacob, standing outside and playing hopscotch on the painted blacktop next to the front of the school. She keeps an eye out for Jughead as she skips, but so far she hasn’t seen any sign of him whatsoever. 

It isn’t until Jacob is on his fifth skip that Betty sees the black car drive up and park in front of the school. Jughead is the only parent that actually gets out of his car to pick up his son and Betty would find it absolutely endearing, if he wasn’t always so late whenever he showed up. 

He walks over to them quickly and Betty realizes that he’s panting once he reaches them. His hair is all over the place and his black button up is pulled out of his slacks, making him look very unkempt. It isn’t a look she’s seen on him just yet, but she decides that it’s a nice one for him. He doesn’t look so serious and uptight this way. 

“I’m so sorry,” he tells her and she can tell that he means it. “My flight was supposed to be back around one but there was a delay and then my sister was on call at the hospital and Moores was with me and--.”

“Hey, hey,” Betty cuts in, stopping his long apology. “It’s fine, really. We’ve been playing outside.” She gestures over to Jacob who’s still caught up in his game of hopscotch. “It’s not a big deal.” 

“I wasn’t supposed to be late,” he sighs out, running his hand through his hair. He looks really upset over it and Betty wishes she could say something to make him understand that it wasn’t a big deal at all. 

“You know,” she starts, the words coming out of her mouth before she can even stop them, “if you ever need me to give him a ride home or to your work or something, I can. That way you won’t have to be rushing around to get over here.” 

Jughead looks at her with wide eyes. She has to stop herself from laughing at the way that he looks just like Jacob whenever he does that. 

“You would do that?” He asks as if someone’s never shown him such kindness. Betty just shrugs and nods. 

“Yeah, I adore him. It’d be no trouble at all, especially if it makes things easier for everyone.” As much as she does enjoy spending time with Jacob, she’d rather not do it outside especially when it was getting colder and colder everyday. She would go inside and wait in the office, but she knows that the bitchy secretary (even Betty got on her bad side just by existing) would probably make Jacob feel bad about his dad not being on time and she wasn’t about to stand by and let that happen. 

“I couldn’t ask you to do that,” Jughead says, shaking his head. “That’s too much. Thank you, though. I’ll just work on getting here earlier. I can hire someone.” 

“Jughead,” Betty says sternly, using her teacher voice. “It’s really not a big deal. You don’t need to pay someone to drive him home when I’d do it for you for free. Don’t make this more complicated than it needs to be.” 

Jughead smiles at her. 

“You’re kind of an angel, you know that right?” 

“Well, yeah. Obviously.” 

Jughead laughs loudly at that which calls the attention of Jacob who walks over to them and leans into his dad’s leg. 

“I won’t let you do it completely for free,” Jughead tells her, a smirk on his face now. “That’s just rude.” 

“What are you proposing?” 

“Cup of coffee?” He bites at his lip and his cheeks turn pink at his words. He looks completely embarrassed and Betty likes the look on him. It’s nothing like she’d first seen when she met him and it just reminds her how wrong she’d been about him. “It’s only polite after all, since you made me one before my flight.” 

A part of her wants to tell him no. She knows what cups of coffee lead to, but she also really wants to say yes. Jughead is a nice guy and besides, it’s just coffee, right? She can keep this nice and professional. 

“Sure,” she nods. “Coffee sounds great.” 

“I’ll call you,” he says with a smile. 

Betty just smiles and waves at both him and Jacob as they walk away from her. She doesn’t know what she just agreed to, but she can’t help the hundreds of butterflies that seem to erupt throughout her stomach. 

“Professional,” she reminds herself quietly. “You can do this, Betty.” 

Right?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're about to get into the actual Bughead part of this story, yayyyyy. ;)


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to Tiki for looking this one over. <3 
> 
> Sorry if there are any mistakes. I literally finished this at like 2 am. 
> 
> As always, thank you for all of your sweet comments and kudos. <3

Jughead doesn’t waste any time when it comes to making good on his promise. The Wednesday after their talk, he sends her a text asking if he can buy her coffee for staying so late with Jacob the other day. She wonders briefly if maybe he’s asking her to watch over Jacob also, but when she asks him, he simply replies that JB’s going to be picking up Jacob early from school for a dentist appointment and that she’ll probably have him all day because he likes visiting the hospital she works at. That brings a smile to Betty’s face. She can just imagine the young boy walking around in awe as he watches his aunt and all her colleagues do their thing. 

In class that day, Jacob even draws several colorful pictures for a few of the patients that he deems his “friends”. Each picture is different and symbolic, she’s sure, of the patient he’ll be giving it to. One picture is of an old man with a cat, the other picture is of two similar looking girls and a mom, one is of an entire family standing outside of an ice-cream shop. He draws at least seven of them and asks Betty’s opinion on each and every single one. She tells him they’re all perfect, because they are; even the lopsided kitty. 

She decides to accept Jughead’s offer and he lets her know that he’ll be picking her up right after school. She jokingly asks if he’ll be late and he sends her the emoji that’s rolling its eyes. For some reason, that has her cracking up at her desk. Jughead doesn’t seem like the type of person to use emojis, but apparently she was wrong about a lot of things these days. For someone who usually hated being wrong, she enjoyed the change right now. She’d gladly admit that she was wrong about the kind of person that Jughead is.

She’d never admit it to anyone else, but she might spend the better half of the afternoon glancing back and forth between the clock on her desktop and the one hanging on her wall. She tells herself it’s just because she really wants to leave and relax, but even her conscious scoffs at her, letting her know that it’s not buying her bullshit. 

She’s glad that for once she dressed up a little nice; opting for a long sleeved, black dress instead of her usual jeans and sweater. She doubts that Jughead will take her to some fancy place just for coffee, but still. At least she won’t look like a slob. He doesn’t seem like the kind of guy that hangs around with messy girls. Not that she really cares what kind of girls he hangs out with, but still. 

She doesn’t have pick up duty today so she releases her kids to the other teachers and spends the next five minutes making sure that her hair and lip gloss look nice enough. 

There’s a knock on her door even though it’s wide open and she jumps up slightly before turning around to see Jughead standing in the entry, leaning against the doorframe with a smile on his face. He’s dressed up in his usual suit and Betty won’t even lie to herself this time, he looks amazing and a part of her hopes that he looks at her and thinks the same. 

“You look lovely,” he tells her as if he could read her mind and Betty’s nerves ease away slowly. “You about ready?” 

“Yeah,” she says as she grabs her coat off of the back of her computer chair. “Thank you again for inviting me today.” 

“It’s the least I could do.” 

They walk out of her room together and she tries not to focus on the eyes of all the other teachers. She isn’t doing anything wrong and she doubts they’re really looking at her at all, but still. She’d rather not be looked at so scrutinizingly. She wonders if they all know exactly who Jughead is and if that’s why they’re staring at him so intensely, or if they were just starstruck by the man who seemed to control entire rooms with his presence. 

“Good day?” He asks as he holds open the exit door for her. 

“Yeah, for once there were no accidents, no trips to the nurse's office, and no excessive yelling.”

“I don’t know how you do it,” he laughs. “Jacob is enough to handle on his own. I don’t think I could deal with nineteen more.” 

“I don’t believe that. He’s so well behaved!” 

“You should see him at home.” Jughead shakes his head, but he’s still smiling. “He’s destroyed my living room a few times.” 

Betty hums out in consideration. “I think I’d like the loud noise. My apartment is always so quiet. It would be nice to have someone else around to bring laughter and joy to the place. It’s why I love teaching so much; I’m never surrounded by silence.” 

She knows she’s getting a bit dark and broody right now and it’s probably not what he wants to hear, but she can’t help it. She’s never particularly liked being alone. Even when she was little, she would convince Polly to have sleepovers with her everynight in her room. When Polly got to old for that, Betty already had her little cat to sleep with her. College had been fine, because she had Veronica as a roommate all four years and Archie was always around too. But now? Now she didn’t have anyone. 

“Well, if you ever do need to watch Jacob for me, you’ll find that you’re not alone.” He smiles at her, not focusing on the dark tone she’d just had, and she’s thankful for it. He opens up the passenger side door for her and helps her inside of the car before walking over to his side and getting in. 

The inside of his car is so clean that it looks like he’d just gotten it from the dealership. She doesn’t think she’s ever been in a car this clean before and she almost feels scared to move, afraid that she’ll ruin the interior somehow. She once spilled a snow cone inside of Archie’s truck and he didn’t talk to her for a whole day. She doesn’t have a snow cone now, but she’s sure she could manage to make a mess somehow if she really tried. 

“So there’s this little cafe that I invested in when I first took over the company,” he informs her as he drives out of the school parking lot, “I was thinking that maybe you’d like to go there. It’s not fancy or anything, but it’s nice.” He sounds a bit wary and Betty wonders if this is a usual problem for him; if women usually expect him to spend outrageous amounts of money on them. 

“I don’t want fancy,” she says quickly. “That’s more than okay.” 

He nods, seeming satisfied, and turns up the heat in the car. 

“You can put on some music,” he tells her. “I usually have it on the Disney station for Jake.” 

Betty raises an eyebrow as she turns up the station and sure enough, the Disney station is blaring some song she’s never heard of before. She laughs at it before lowering it down a little bit. When she turns to look at Jughead, he’s mouthing the words to the song and Betty’s eyes widen before she erupts into loud giggles. 

“You like this song!” 

“I don’t.” 

“You do,” she insists. “Don’t lie, it’s fine. I love a lot of kid shows now. They’re just kind of awesome.” 

“You’d know the lyrics by memory if you had a child who demanded you turn it up everytime it came on.” 

Betty just nods, giving Jughead the last word. The car starts to fill with silence and it should be really awkward, but it’s not. Betty doesn’t find silence awkward, just the being alone part, but she isn’t alone right now. She has Jughead next to her, who’s tapping his fingers against the steering wheel to the rhythm of the song playing. 

The cafe isn’t too far away, but the traffic adds more time to the drive. 

Betty has so many questions she wants to ask him. She wants to know more about him, but she’s scared. They hardly know each other and she doesn’t really have any reason to be asking him anything personal aside from the fact that she’s just nosey. 

“So do you just live out here by yourself?” 

Betty nods. “Yeah, my family’s back east. I came here for college and just decided to stay.” 

“That must be lonely,” he gives her a side eye look. 

“I have Veronica and Archie.” He looks at her in confusion and she realizes that of course, he doesn’t know them. “Veronica Lodge and Archie Andrews, they’re my best friends. They live here too.” 

“Lodge?” Jughead asks. “As in Hiram Lodge?” 

“That’s the one.” 

“Small world,” he says. “I’ve done business with him.” 

“Yeah, I know.” She says the words before she can stop herself and proceeds to curse under her breath. Jughead gives her an amused look and she can feel her face heaten up in embarrassment. 

“You know?” 

“I just…” she tries to think of a good excuse to give him, but she knows that there isn’t really one. With a sigh she decides to just go with the truth. “I might have brought you up to her. She knows everyone. I wasn’t aware you were some big business man, that was all her.” 

Jughead nods and looks at her with a smirk. 

“Did you Google me too?” 

“What? _No!_ Are you on Google?” The idea seems so farfetched to her, but Jughead just keeps on smirking so she’ll take that as a yes. “Wow. So does that mean that I’ll end up on the page of some tabloid tomorrow?” 

He snorts. “Not hardly. I’m a businessman, I’m not a celebrity.” He turns down a street and works at parallel parking in front of the sidewalk. “So what did Veronica say about me?” 

“Egosticial?” 

“Perhaps.” 

Betty rolls her eyes. “She didn’t say much. Just that her dad did business with you once and seemed to like you. She did say that she wasn’t aware you had a son or that you had ever been married.” 

Just like that, the light fades from Jughead’s eyes and his grip on the steering wheel tightens. His jaw clenches and for a moment Betty’s scared that he might tell her to get out of the car and walk home or something. 

“Are you okay?” 

It takes a few seconds, but soon Jughead is shaking his head and looking at her with a smile that she knows is fake. 

“Yeah,” he tells her. “I’m fine. Your friend was right though. I was never married.” 

Betty just nods, accepting his vague answer, even though she really wants to ask him more about it. She doesn’t though. She can tell that it seems to be a very touchy subject for him and she would never want to push it. She might be nosey, but she isn’t mean. 

“Well, we’re here!” Jughead gets out of the car and walks over to her side to open up the door for her. He holds out a hand for her and she grabs onto it as he helps her out of the car. “Welcome to my favorite cafe in all of Seattle.” 

She looks up and smiles. It’s a cute, little hole in the wall place. The words on the door say ‘Cherry Tea Room’ and Betty feels like she’s home as she walks inside. It’s a small place, with white tables and chairs scattered around the room. There’s a wall that has a shelf full of different kinds of teas, a glass cabinet with different antique tea cups, and in the middle of the room there’s an array of desserts setup on different posts. 

“It’s so beautiful,” Betty tells him as he leads her over to a table next to the window. She looks out of it and watches the cars and people pass by and it feels like she’s in another time. The entire place seems timeless itself and she slowly falls in love with it. 

“Isn’t it? My best friend owns it. She didn’t really have the money to start it up by herself so I helped her get on her feet.” He takes a look around. “She likes to remodel it often though. She’s a very indecisive woman. I think this look is the best so far.” 

“You bad talking me, Jughead Jones?” 

Both of them turn and are met with a girl who has short blonde hair and striking blue eyes. She’s smiling at both of them even though her tone had seemed a little hostile. Betty assumes that this is the friend he had been talking about and she realizes that she’s probably just joking around. 

“Never,” he says. 

“You gonna introduce me to your date or do I have to guess?” 

Betty’s cheeks burn red and she’s waiting for Jughead to correct his friend, but she’s shocked when instead he just rolls his eyes. 

“Sabrina, this is Betty. Betty, this is my best friend, Sabrina.”

“Nice to meet you,” the short blonde says with a genuine smile on her face. “I don’t think Jughead’s ever brought a girl in here before.” 

“Oh,” Betty says, not really sure what to do with that information. The line between professional and... whatever _this_ is, definitely feels like it’s being crossed. “Well, it’s nice to meet you too.” 

Sabrina smiles and nods before turning back to Jughead. “Give Jacob and JB my love! Enjoy your dinner.” 

Dinner? The words send a cold fear through Betty. This isn’t supposed to be dinner. This is just supposed to be coffee. Jughead knows that, right? He knows that this isn’t a date? Because it’s not a date. Right? 

“Sorry about her,” Jughead says. “She’s kind of a bit much, but she means well.” He takes a look at her and must see the way she looks completely freaked out because he frowns at her. “Are you okay?” 

“What? Yeah. Yeah, I’m fine.” She grabs the menu that was already on the table and hides her face in it. “So um, is the tea good here?” 

“Yeah. The hot tea is especially good.” 

She looks through the long list of options, but she doesn’t really read any of the names in front of her. Her mind is stuck on trying to figure out if this is a date or not. She doesn’t know why she’s so stressed out over it. Jughead was kind and handsome. If this were a date, she should have been elated, but for some reason she just feels terrified. 

This isn’t a date and she can’t think otherwise. If she thinks otherwise then she’ll get her hopes up and she’ll have to deal with the hurt that comes after when Jughead reminds her that she’s his son’s teacher and he’s some kind of multi billionaire and of course, he’d never actually date someone like her. He was just being nice to her because she had offered to take care of his son for him. She could handle that. She just had to make sure the lines didn’t get blurred here. 

“Have you tried the peppermint tea?” 

He nods. “It’s good.” 

“Alright. I’ll take your word for it.” 

“So,” he says, dragging the word out as he runs his fingers against the table. “Did you want to eat here? I know I just said for drinks, but if you’re hungry then it’s no problem at all.” 

She is hungry. She’s starving. The sandwich she’d bought from the teacher’s lounge had done nothing for her and her stomach was starting to hurt from how empty it was. 

“Are you?” She asks. “Hungry?” 

“I’m a growing boy, Miss Cooper. I’m always hungry.” 

Betty snorts. “Growing boy? I’m sure that’s not true.” 

“Are you calling me old?” He asks, affronted. “I’ll have you know that I’m not even thirty yet.” 

That completely shocks Betty and she looks at him with wide eyes. He’s not even thirty but he’s running a company? It seems nearly impossible until she remembers how Veronica told her he had taken over for his father and even had a partner. Maybe that was why he decided to get a partner. There was no way that someone so young could run an empire like that all by themselves. 

“Do I look old or something?” He asks when she doesn’t say anything back to him. He actually looks a little hurt by it and Betty laughs. 

“No, no. I just wasn’t expecting you to be so young.” 

“I’m only twenty-eight,” he says with an eye roll. “I’m not that young.” 

“You’re either young or you’re old. You can’t have it both ways.” 

Jughead just narrows his eyes at her before nodding with a content smile. 

“So dinner?” He asks. “Or just tea?” 

She thinks it over in her head for a little bit, she doesn’t know why though; she had already made her decision when he first asked her.

“Dinner,” she tells him. “I’m starving.” 

She orders a cranberry and turkey sandwich while Jughead settles for a BLT. Betty makes fun of his very basic order but takes it all back when he allows her to try some of it. 

He holds the sandwich up to her lips and for a moment she wonders if she’s supposed to grab it from him, but when he just nods at her to take a bite, she does, straight from his hands. It’s both really intimate and overwhelming but she doesn’t feel nervous when she does it. The longer she’s around him, the more comfortable she begins to feel.

“That’s really good,” she admits as she licks her lips, wanting to make sure that she hasn’t made a mess of herself. Jughead’s eyes stay locked on her face for a moment before he finally smirks at her. 

“I told you,” he says, confidently. “These are the best BLTs in the city.” 

They settle into easy conversation while eating. Jughead asks her about her teaching and college experience and she tells him every boring bit of it all. She asks him about what it’s like to run his own business and he fills her in on all the tedious details. 

“Do you like it?” She asks him once they’re finished eating. “Running a company by yourself?” 

“I don’t run it all by myself. I knew that I’d never be able to. My college buddy, Reggie, helped me out a lot. Especially when it comes to balancing things between work and Jacob.” 

“Is it hard to balance them?” 

He shrugs. “Sometimes. When my dad first got sick and he needed me at the company a lot, that was hard. I didn’t have Reggie helping me yet and it wasn’t easy trying to play daddy and CEO.” 

“Can I ask you something?” 

Jughead looks at her warily and she knows that he’s well aware of what she wants to ask, but he nods anyway. 

“Where’s Jacob’s mom?” 

Jughead opens his mouth twice before closing it both times and shaking his head. 

“She’s out of the picture.” Then he laughs, taking her off guard. “Or well, she was never in it actually.” 

He says it a bit maliciously and Betty regrets bringing it up. 

“I’m sorry,” she tells him gently, meaning it completely. 

“Don’t be. I haven’t thought about her in years. It was never anything serious.”

She feels like she’s missing out on something here, but she doesn’t say anything about it. He’s answered more than enough and she knows when not to push something. She’s thankful that he didn’t tell her off for even asking in the first place. 

“Are you ready to go?” He asks her when they’ve both finished. 

She nods and the two of them stand up and walk over to the cash register where Sabrina is standing with a still bright smile on her face. 

“Did you enjoy it?” She asks Betty as Jughead hands his card over to her. 

“I did. I can’t believe that I’ve never heard of this place before. I’ve definitely been missing out.” 

“Well, I won’t hold it against you as long as you promise to come back sometime.” 

She winks at Betty and Jughead just scoffs. Sabrina’s a really friendly girl and Betty doesn’t even pause before promising her that she’ll be back soon. This place would be heaven for Veronica and Betty decides that she’s going to have to bring her sometime soon. 

They say goodbye to the quirky blonde before turning around to walk out of the cafe. Jughead places a hand on the small of her back as he leads her out and Betty tries not to focus on the feeling of it. It’s both heavy and featherlight. She wants to walk out of it and lean back into it. In the end, she decides to just stay still and allow him to walk her out. She tries not to think about just how much she likes it. 

It’s raining outside and the first thing she thinks about is that her coat doesn’t have a hood. She doesn’t really care about getting wet, but she’d rather not ruin Jughead’s car. 

She moves her arms to take off her coat and put it above her head for protection, but Jughead stops her. 

“Hey, hey, what are you doing?” 

“I don’t want to get all wet and ruin your car.” 

“Please,” he says with an eye roll. He takes off his own suit jacket and places it on top of her head. “I’m not going to let you get a cold. Come on.” 

“I don’t want to ruin your jacket.” 

“It’s a jacket, Betty. It doesn’t matter.” He holds his hand out to her and she takes it with a sigh. She’s sure that his clothing probably costs a lot more than her’s does and she feels a little guilty, but he doesn’t seem to care so she’ll just go along with it. 

This time on the car ride back, Betty plays with the radio for a little bit before stopping on the 80s station when Africa by Toto is playing. Jughead groans out and Betty laughs at his reaction. 

“Really? Of all the songs?” 

“Look, I just started watching Stranger Things and this song has been in my head ever since. It’s like a never ending nightmare.” 

“So you decide to torture me as well? You’re a cruel one, Miss Cooper.” 

“You gotta be cruel to be kind.” 

“What are you?” Jughead asks with a laugh. “Some kind of 80’s song queen?” 

“Technically that one was in ‘79.” Jughead just gives her a look and she smiles. “I like my music, okay?” 

“Alright, alright.” 

The light teasing is so fun and refreshing that it makes Betty forget all about the nerves she had been feeling earlier. She’s happy to be here with Jughead right now and if she’s being honest with herself, she doesn’t really want it to end. She doesn’t think about what any of this will mean tomorrow, or if it’ll even mean something at all, she’s just living in the moment.

When they finally reach the front of her apartment, she’s hesitant to get out of the car. 

“I’ll pick you up tomorrow morning and give you a ride to the school.” 

“What?” Betty asks, taken off guard by his random statement. 

“Well, you did leave your car at the school so I’m assuming you don’t have a ride there?” 

Right. Crap. Had she really forgotten all about her car? 

“I could just ride the bus or something,” she tells him. “You don’t need to go through all that trouble.” 

“You’re not riding the bus.” His voice comes out authoritative and Betty tries not to think about how that makes her feel, because she likes it a little too much. Is that he talks to his employees? 

“Why not? I have before.” 

“Yes, well, you didn’t know me before, did you? If you ever need a ride somewhere, call me. If I can’t get you, then I’ll send Moores. You don’t need to be riding the bus in this city.” He gives her a gentle smile and the steel fades away from his voice. “Besides, Jacob would probably have a field day over getting to ride to school with you.” 

Well, how could she possibly say no to that? Jughead knows that he has her now by the way he looks at her. 

“You don’t play fair, do you?” She asks. 

“You don’t get to where I am in life by playing fair, Betty Cooper.” 

“No,” she agrees. “I guess not.” 

“Come on,” he says, unlocking the car before turning it off. “I’ll walk up to your building.” 

He’s quick to walk over to her side and open up the door for her. It shouldn’t be such a big thing, a guy opening a door for her, but it is. She’s never really had someone do that for her, aside from Archie but he didn’t count, and it meant a lot to her. 

It’s stopped raining already so she hands over his jacket to him once they reach the front of her building. 

“Thank you for today,” she tells him. “It was lovely.” 

“Anytime. I had fun.” 

They stand there for a few seconds in silence, looking at each other, but not knowing what to say. 

Suddenly, Jughead begins to lean in towards her and her heart skips a beat. Is he going to kiss her? Does she even want him to kiss her? _Yes._ Yes, she does. She stays as still as possible, scared that even the slightest move could cause him to back off. She feels slightly crazy. This is happening too fast. Right? Isn’t there a time limit on this kind of stuff? 

Jughead’s lips hover above her forehead, he’s so much taller than her, and just as he’s about to lean down, a shrill ringing sounds out loudly and causes both of them to jump away from the other. 

Betty’s face turns red as she fumbles around her purse for her phone. Kevin’s name flashes back at her and she curses his bad timing. 

“Sorry,” she says, voice timid. “It’s my best friend.” 

“It’s fine,” Jughead tells her, not looking a bit upset. In fact, he looks completely at ease and Betty has to wonder if she just imagined the whole thing. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Betty. Get some rest.” He leans down again, but this time he simply presses his lips against her forehead. They’re cold to the touch, probably from the rain and weather, but they’re soft and Betty closes her eyes at the feeling. All too soon, they’re gone from her skin and he’s walking away from her. 

Before he gets in his car, he looks back at her and waves. She returns it before answering her phone. 

“This better be good,” she hisses across the line. 

“Oh, my God. You’ll never guess what Joaquin’s planning for our anniversary.” 

Betty sighs as she listens to her friend; once again the feeling of loneliness creeps up on her. She wants to tell him about _her_ day for once, about Jughead, but she doesn’t. 

None of it really matters in the end, right?


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> IT'S RIVERDALE DAY, WHOOP WHOOP!
> 
> Enjoy this little chappie. Unbeta-d so excuse any mistakes on my part. Enjoy. <3

She feels like a little kid all over again. It’s like waking up on a school day when you know that you’re going on a field trip with all your friends. You feel happy, excited, and wide awake. You aren’t tired or groggy. You don’t drag your feet to the bathroom; you run towards it with a grin on your face. 

That’s how Betty feels as she curls her hair in her bathroom. She feels giddy, like she used to back on field trip days, and she knows that it’s kind of ridiculous. She’s just getting a ride from Jughead to the school, but for some reason it’s exciting and has her heart beating quickly. She didn’t think she’d see him so soon, but she is. It doesn’t matter that it’s only because she left her car at the school and he feels bad. None of that really matters to her right now.

She’s been thinking about the almost kiss. Surely that’s what it was. She can remember the way his lips had been hovering just above her own and she can’t help but to wonder what would have happened if Kevin hadn’t called. Would it have been a simple peck or a passionate kiss? How does he kiss? When he had pressed his lips against her forehead it had been tender and sweet, but she wonders what it’s like to actually kiss him. 

Her thoughts are cut short when her phone buzzes, a message from Jughead lighting up the screen as he lets her know that he’s outside with Jacob. 

She grabs her coat off of her bed and tugs it on before grabbing her bag and all but running out of her apartment. When she gets outside, her heart starts to race once she sees the familiar black car. 

Jughead stands outside of it, in front of the passenger’s door, and holds it open for her with a warm smile on his face. 

“Someone’s a morning person,” he teases her. 

_If only you knew._

“It’s a good day,” is all she says back as she slides into the car. 

“Hi, Miss Cooper!” 

Jacob is sitting in the middle seat, buckled in with a blanket on his lap. He’s grinning so wide at her that Betty can feel her own face start to match his. His happiness is infectious and it was just what she needed so early in the morning. 

“Hey, Jake! How was the dentist?” 

“Oh, it was cool! They let me get a prize afterwards. I got this.” He pulls something out of his pocket and shows it to her shyly. It’s a small bracelet, the kind that kids make with beads. It’s a bunch of pink beads with a few random little flowers here and there. 

“That’s very pretty,” she tells him honestly. It reminds her of her childhood and summers spent with Polly outside.

“I got it for you.” 

Betty gasps lightly before looking over at Jughead who’s sitting in the driver’s seat with a tiny smile on his lips.

“Really?” She asks, looking back over at Jacob. 

He nods. “You wear pink a lot and it made me think of you.” He scrunches up his nose in thought. “Do you like it?” 

“I love it!” She tells him. This seems to ease any doubts he had and he hands the bracelet over to her happily. Betty puts it around her wrist and she knows right there and then that she’ll never take it off. It’s such a simple little gift, but it means the entire world to her. “I’ll never take it off.” 

“Promise?” He asks, looking at her a little suspiciously. 

“I promise.” 

“So I was wondering,” Jughead speaks up whenever she turns to face the front again, “would you mind dropping Jake off for me today? I have a meeting that will probably run late and I don’t have anyone else to pick him up.” He bites on the edge of his lip as if he’s nervous that she might say no, like she didn’t _just_ tell him that she’d watch Jacob whenever he needed. 

“Of course! Do you know what time it’ll be over at?” 

“Around eight. Moores has a family emergency, but I was going to see if JB could meet you at my house and she could watch Jacob, but I’m not sure when her shift ends…” He trails off and Betty wonders how he used to handle things like this in the past. She thinks about how stressful this must all be for him and she feels incredibly sorry. 

“I could always watch him at my place if that’s okay with you. I just got some groceries so I could make him something for dinner and everything, that way you wouldn’t have to worry about that whenever you pick him up.” Her cheeks heat up at the words, she doesn’t know if she’s stepping over some invisible line right now, and she feels a bit embarrassed by her own request. 

“Betty,” Jughead says as he glances at her quickly, his eyes are wide but they look sad at the same time. He whispers so that Jacob won’t hear him. “I’m already asking you for so much. You can’t give my son special treatment.” 

“It’s not special treatment,” she urges, although she knows it technically is. “It’s me trying to make things a little easier for you. Besides, it’d be nice to have some laughter and life in my apartment.” 

Jughead’s eyes soften as he remembers the words she told him before, about how alone she felt sometimes. She wishes she could show him just how much of a bother Jacob _wasn’t_. She had always been very fond of children, especially after Polly had the twins, and it was a big reason why she became a teacher. She absolutely adored children. There’s no way this could ever bother her. 

“Are you positive?” Jughead asks, giving her one last chance to back out. 

“I’m positive. Is there anything he’s allergic to that I should know about?” 

“Peanuts,” Jughead says quickly. “He’s allergic to peanuts.” 

Betty nods. That shouldn’t be hard to remember at all. It’s one of the most common food allergies out there. 

“Alright then, no peanuts.” 

Jughead smiles at her before looking in his rearview mirror to Jacob in the backseat. 

“Hey, buddy. How do you feel about going to Miss Cooper’s while I’m at work? She’ll cook you dinner.” 

It’s incredible to watch the way Jacob’s eyes light up almost immediately as he looks between the back of Betty and Jughead’s seats, as if he really can’t believe it.

“Really?” He gasps. “I can?” 

“If you want to,” Betty tells him softly, letting him know that it’s completely his choice. 

“Yes!” He replies quickly. “Yes, please.” 

“Okay, how do you feel about some chicken tenders and mac and cheese?” She’s never been the best cook. The only person that she knows she can cook better than is Veronica and that’s not really saying much. It’s not that she burns things or ruins the kitchen; it’s that she doesn’t really know how to make a lot of recipes. She had tried for a while in college, but stopped. So she can make a few basic things and that’s about it. 

“That’s my favorite!” Jacob squeals out. Betty doesn’t know if that’s really the truth, but it makes her smile either way. “No celery, right?” 

Jughead turns to give her a confused look and Betty just acts like she never saw him.

“No celery,” she tells Jacob. “I promise.” 

Before she knows it, they’re in front of the school. It feels a bit strange to be getting dropped off here by Jughead. There’s something so domestic and comfortable about it, but she tries not to focus on that. 

“Thank you,” she tells him again as she gets out of the car. Jacob runs over to her side and grabs ahold of her hand tightly. 

“Thank _you_ ,” Jughead says, eyes focused on just her. He smiles and then looks at Jacob. “Be good today, buddy. Love you.” 

“Love you too, daddy,” Jacob nearly sings out as he tugs on Betty’s hand, eager to go inside. She’s never met a child who seemed to love school as much as he did. 

“I’ll see you later,” Jughead tells her and Betty nods before watching him drive off. 

“Castles?” Jacob asks her and she grins down at him. 

“Yeah, let’s build castles.” 

***

Jacob had been giddy for most of the ride to Betty’s apartment. He had asked her simple questions like if she had any animals, if she had a TV, and would continue to look out of the window at random times as if he’d never been down this side of the city before. 

When they finally reach her apartment, Jacob lets out a low ‘wow’. 

“This place is so big.”

Betty’s eyes follow his and she tries to see where he’s coming from. It’s an average apartment and her one bedroom is definitely _not_ big, but she supposes that from a child’s viewpoint, it could be. 

“Well, I only own one room in this place,” she informs him. “The whole thing isn’t mine.” 

“So other people live here too?” 

“Mhm. On every single floor.” 

“Wow,” he repeats as he follows her up the stairs to the main entrance. “That’s cool.” 

Derek at the front desk smiles and waves at her as she walks towards the elevators. 

“Oh!” Jacob says. “I like riding in these!” He runs inside of the open elevator and Betty looks at him amused. “Which button do I click?” 

“Seven.” 

He does so enthusiastically and she starts to understand what Jughead had meant. Now that it’s just the two of them, Jacob seems a lot more energetic and talkative. Granted he was occasionally like this with her at the school, but he usually cooled down whenever there were more people around them. She’s never seen him so enthusiastic and it’s refreshing. 

When they finally get inside of her apartment, he walks in slowly but she can see how intrigued he is by everything. He walks over to her bookshelf in the living room that’s full of novels and DVDs and other fun knick knacks that she’s collected over the years. He runs his fingers over a snowglobe she’d gotten from Las Vegas one year before moving on to the seashell she’d gotten engraved in Miami. 

“Do you like to go places?” 

“Sometimes.” When she had been in college, she had traveled a lot with Veronica. During their various breaks, the two of them would go wherever the weather was nicest and she’d seen her fair share of places around the world. She misses the impulsive trips and the memories that came along with them. 

“I want to go to Disney World,” Jacob tells her sadly. 

“Me too,” Betty says wistfully. Not wanting to let his sad mood linger any longer, she claps her hands together and smiles. “Do you want to watch a movie?” 

“Okay,” he says, already seeming happier. “Do you have Descendants?” 

Wow, Jughead wasn’t lying when he told her that movie just happened to be his son’s newest obsession. As much as she loved it, she doesn’t think she could last through watching that right now. She spares a glance at her bookshelf and looks for other potential movies. 

“What about Scooby-Doo?” 

Jacob makes a face at her and Betty pulls out one of her favorites, holding it up to him. 

“I have Scooby-Doo and The Reluctant Werewolf. I bet you’ll love it.” 

He looks at her like he doesn’t really trust her and Betty’s almost positive that the poor boy has fallen victim to the newest era of the Scooby gang. That’s the only thing that could explain his apprehensive look. 

“Come on,” she says, patting a spot on the couch for him to sit down on. “Give me ten minutes. If you aren’t in love with it after ten minutes, then we can watch Descendants.” 

“Fine,” he says, eyes narrowed at her and she has to stop from doing some kind of immature victory dance. She’s aware that watching movies might not be the most fun thing to do for a kid, but her apartment isn’t really child friendly. Polly and the twins don’t visit much because it’s too long of a drive and there is no way the twins will sit still on a plane. Betty tries to go back home as often as she can, but it gets harder and harder especially with her new job. So yeah, toys? Not something you’ll really find in her apartment. Cartoons are the next best thing, though. 

As she sets up the movie, Jacob wriggles around on the couch, taking off his shoes as he kicks his feet up. The movement makes her smile because at least it means that he’s comfortable here. 

“This was my favorite movie when I was a kid,” Betty tells him as she sits next to him and clicks ‘play’. “I bet it’ll be yours too.” This time Jacob doesn’t give her another questioning glance, because the movie is already starting and his eyes are glued onto the TV. 

Sure enough, like she had known, Jacob’s laughter begins to fill the apartment as he meets all of the monsters. He especially gets a kick out of Dracula being confused by Shaggy’s name. It’s been awhile since she’s watched this movie with someone who wasn’t Veronica (which was usually out of bribery) and it feels good to get reminded of just how funny the movie is. She’s laughing at the terrible jokes, but more than that she’s laughing along with Jacob. She hadn’t realized just how quiet and lonely her apartment actually was, but now that had life in it once again, she didn’t know how she was supposed to go back to the silence. 

When the movie finally ends, Jacob is begging her to put on another one. She slips Ghoul School into the DVD player for him as she walks over to the kitchen. 

“I’m going to start dinner,” she tells him, but he’s hardly paying attention to her now. She feels like she hasn’t stopped smiling at all since she woke up this morning. 

Her phone buzzes on the kitchen counter and she picks it up to see a new message from Jughead.

**Jughead: Everything okay?**

**Betty: Shouldn’t you be in a meeting?**

The next text is a picture of a long table that’s completely vacant. 

**Jughead: I’m early and everyone else is late. As usual.**

Betty smiles and she snaps a picture of the back of her couch and the TV. Jacob’s leaning against the arm of the couch, so his curly black hair is in the frame but that’s all. 

**Betty: Are you aware that your son has never seen any of the classic Scooby Doo’s?**

**Jughead: ………**

**Betty: I’m looking at you, Jughead Jones! Honestly. This is unforgivable. What kind of household environment is that?**

**Jughead: Oh, would you look at that! Everyone just showed up. Gotta go. You’re the best, Betty!**

She just snorts before sending him the emoji that’s sticking it’s tongue out. It feels good to have this playful banter with him. It’s been awhile since she’s been able to talk to a guy like this and it’s nice. 

Making tenders is easy. It’s quite possibly the easiest meal ever and she switches between watching along with Jacob and cooking. 

“Is cooking fun?” He randomly asks her during the movie. He’s standing up on the couch and leaning over the back of it to get a better look at what she’s doing. 

“Sometimes. Have you ever tried?” 

He shakes his head, but his eyes look calculating as he studies Betty’s movements and she knows what he isn’t asking. 

“Would you like to help me stir the mac and cheese?” 

He doesn’t even answer, he just jumps off of the couch and runs over to the kitchen to stand by her side. He doesn’t reach the top of the stove just yet so Betty grabs a chair and places it in front of the oven for him. 

“Here,” she says as she places a wooden spoon in his hand. “Just stir the macaroni but make sure you don’t touch the stove. It’s pretty hot.” 

“Okay!” He starts to stir with the most determined look on his face and Betty has to stop herself from laughing. It’s clear that he takes his position as the mac and cheese stirrer very seriously and she’s not about to ruin that for him. 

“Why do you live by yourself?”

The question comes so abruptly and so plainly that Betty almost drops one of the chicken tenders she had been holding. She whirls around to look at Jacob, but he’s still stirring the mac and cheese, unbothered, as if he’d just asked her what time it was. 

She doesn’t know why, but she doesn’t know how to answer that question at all. 

“I guess because I’m an adult,” she finally settles on. “When you’re an adult, sometimes you move away from home.” 

Jacob hums out before shaking his head. “I don't think I’ll do that. I think I want to live with daddy forever.” 

“Well, you don’t have to move out,” she says with a laugh. “It’s just what some people decide to do.” 

“Is it fun?” 

Her mouth opens, ready to say the truth; no. No, it’s not fun. She doesn’t know why she spent all those years wanting to move out when she was younger, because now she wishes more than anything that she could go back home and be surrounded by people again. She didn’t know it’d be this lonely. 

“Sure,” she lies. “I get to stay up late and eat whatever I want.” 

Jacob stops stirring at that. He turns around and studies her with a solemn look. It almost makes her want to look away from him for a minute. She wonders how someone so young can look so wise with just one expression.

“You’re lying.” 

She stares at him with wide eyes. She knows what the proper adult thing to say right now is. She should tell him that it’s rude to talk to an adult like that, because that’s what she would have been told as a child if she ever said something like that. 

In the end she doesn’t. She just puts down the chicken and meets his gaze with honest eyes. 

“Why do you say that?” 

“Because you sounded sad when you said it. If it was true, you would sound happy.”

“You’re really smart, you know that?” She smiles at him, but they both know that it’s forced on her part. Jacob hops down from his chair and runs over to her, throwing his arms around her waist as he brings her in for a hug. 

“I know.” 

She laughs loudly, genuinely, and he follows along with her. 

“I hope you can be happy soon.” 

She doesn’t tell him that she is happy, because overall she is. She doesn’t have anything to be sad over aside from the loneliness that sometimes plagues her. She doesn’t say any of that though, instead she just squeezes him once more before pulling away from him with a smile. 

“I’m happy right now.” He looks at her, trying to decide whether or not to believe her. In the end he does and he just nods, satisfied. “Now, want to help me set the table?” 

“Yes, please!” 

She hands him two blue plates and he runs over to the table to set them right next to each other. She follows him happily, a pan of chicken tenders in one hand and a large bowl of mac and cheese in the other. 

“Do you want some juice or water?” 

“Juice, please, Miss Cooper.”

“You know you can call me Betty if you want. It’s not school time right now.” 

He looks a little undecided about it, but finally he nods. 

“I like your name. It’s pretty, Betty.”

Her heart grows at his words and she smiles gently at him. 

“Thank you, Jacob. I’m glad you think so.” 

She walks over to the fridge and pulls out a carton of fruit punch from it, pouring it into two glasses before walking back over to the table. 

“Okay,” she says as she sits down and hands him the glass, “dig in.” 

He does so and Betty tries not to focus on how it makes her feel. Sitting here and having dinner with Jacob reminds her of the twins. It reminds her of being back home, surrounded by her family, and the feeling is both wanted and depressing. She can’t help how she suddenly envisions this happening more often, but she tries to push the thought away. She knows that this is just a one time thing, maybe a few times if anything, but that’s it. She’s just helping out Jughead, a parent in need. She’d do it for anyone else and she can’t allow herself to her too close to anyone. She knows it won’t end well for her. 

Jacob kicks his feet under the table as he chews his macaroni, giving Betty a wide smile once he swallows it. 

“This is amazing!” 

“Yeah? You like it?” 

“Mhm! Daddy can’t cook.” 

She laughs. “Really? Not even mac and cheese?” 

He shakes his head vigorously. “No. He started a fire one time.” 

“While cooking macaroni?” She asks, aghast. 

He nods. “Yeah.” 

She doesn’t know whether to laugh or be worried, but she doesn’t have to focus on deciding for too long, because there’s a knock at her door, grabbing her attention suddenly. 

“I’ll be right back,” she tells Jacob before getting up. She doesn’t know who’d show up to her apartment at nearly seven in the evening, probably some late mail if anything. 

She opens the door to Jughead Jones who is smiling sheepishly at her, hands behind his back. 

“Hello,” she says, voice going a little too high. “It’s a bit early, isn’t it?” 

“So I may have underestimated just how long the meeting would take. It was actually quite short.” 

“So I see.” 

Betty smiles at him, forcing herself to ignore the way her heart is pounding against her chest at seeing him nearly inside of her apartment. 

“Would you like to come in?” She asks. “We’ve only just started dinner. It’s nothing special, just some chicken tenders but…” she trails off, slightly embarrassed at her choice of meal. He’s probably used to eating fancy dinners with bills over two hundred dollars. 

“I love chicken tenders,” he says quickly. “They’re my favorite.” 

She hardly believes him, but either way, she side steps away from the door, making room for him to walk inside. 

“Oh,” he says suddenly, “I um, I got you these.” He finally unlocks his hands from behind his back and produces a small bouquet of peonies. 

“Really?” She asks, a bit startled. “Why?” His face falters and she mentally scolds herself. “I mean, I love them! They’re beautiful. Thank you so much, but you didn’t have to do that.” 

“I know. I wanted to.” 

“Oh,” she breathes out. “Well, thank you, Jughead.” She takes them from him and only then does he finally walk inside of her apartment. 

“It smells good in here.” 

“You’re lucky we left you some mac and cheese,” she jokes. “A few more minutes and it might have all been gone.” 

Jughead rolls his eyes at her but he’s smiling still. 

“Daddy!” Jacob gasps when they enter the kitchen again. “You came!” 

“Yeah, Miss Cooper said I can join you guys.” 

Jacob looks absolutely delighted as he pats the seat next to him for Jughead to sit in. 

“I can get you water or juice?” Betty asks him. “I don’t really drink or anything, but if you want beer, I’m sure Archie’s left some somewhere in the back of my fridge.” 

“Water, please,” he tells her, but he follows her over to the fridge. 

She retrieves it for him and hands it over to him, but his eyes are still stuck on the fridge door. She follows his gaze and her cheeks grow red as she realizes that he’s staring at the picture Jacob had drawn for her. She hadn’t lied when she told him that she would put it on her fridge. She had even gone out to buy some new magnets for it; little yellow school buses to show the significance. 

“Did Jacob draw this for you?” 

“Yeah,” she says as he runs his fingers over his son’s scribbled name in the corner. “I thought I’d hang it up on the fridge to add a little bit of color and character to the place.” 

Jughead turns to look at her, eyes full of an emotion that she can’t really place. 

“Come on!” Jacob groans from the kitchen table. “Daddy! Betty!” 

Jughead’s eyes widen at the use of her first name and she just gives him a smile and shrugs. 

“It’s not school hours so it felt kind of weird.” 

“Well,” he says, finally cracking a smile at her. “Let’s go eat before he starts throwing macaroni at us.” 

“He wouldn’t!” 

“Trust me, he would.” 

The two of them share a laugh before walking back over to the table and sitting down. Jacob starts to fill his dad in on his day while Jughead shares some details about his own day at work. 

“And you Betty?” Jughead asks once he’s done with his story. “How was your day?”

She fiddles with the bracelet on her wrist that Jacob had given her earlier that day. Both of the Jones men are staring at her, eyes full of interest and for the first time in a long time, she doesn’t feel alone at all. For the first time in a long time her apartment feels like a home to her. For the first time in awhile she doesn’t dread the evening. 

With a smile and an energetic voice, she tells them everything.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know how I feel about this chapter, but... here you goooo. I hope you enjoy.

“That wasn’t scary!” 

“Yes, it was!” 

“No, it wasn’t!” 

“Fine! When the monster shows up under your bed tonight and tries to eat you, don’t say I didn’t warn you.” 

“Monsters don’t exist.” 

Betty throws her hands up in frustration. She had just introduced Jacob to the world of Goosebumps, but he’d was yet to actually get scared of any of the monsters in the movies. She remembers being terrified of all the monsters in the films when she was his age, but he sits on her couch looking completely dissatisfied. He had actually _laughed_ at Night of The Living Dummy, which was arguably one of the scariest R.L. Stine creations. She hadn’t been able to sleep by herself for weeks after she’d first seen Slappy as a child, but no. Jacob had laughed at the doll and called him ugly. 

“You’re a monster,” Betty tells him before reaching over and tickling his sides. He gasps before erupting into a fit of giggles. 

“Stop, stop!” 

“Not until you say the monsters are scary!” 

“Nooooo!” 

They’re both laughing and he’s wriggling around on the couch, trying to get out of her grasp. Betty finally lets him go when he threatens to use the restroom on her furniture if she doesn’t let him go. He glares at her once she finally pulls away, but she can see the secret little smile that still plays on his lips. 

She’s been taking care of Jacob a lot more often over the past few weeks. The two of them spend a lot more evenings together than not and Jughead’s actually tried to pay her once or twice, which she had out right refused. Watching Jacob is one of her favorite things. Her apartment even has a few toys in it now, things she had picked up from Target over the weeks for the boy. 

Sometimes she has him until eight in the evening, other days they’re only together until around five. The pattern they’ve fallen into is comfortable and easy. Sometimes Jughead will even join them for dinner, but those days aren’t too often. He hadn’t been lying when he said that he was a pretty busy person. She was beginning to get an understanding of just how busy the other man actually was. She didn’t mind any of it though. It meant more time that she didn’t have to be alone with her thoughts. 

Like clockwork, there’s a knock on her frontdoor. She stands up and holds a hand out for Jacob. 

“Looks like daddy’s here! Go get your stuff packed up while I answer the door.” 

The two of them split up and she walks over to the front door with a smile on her face and a skip in her step. It’s alarming to her just how much happier she seems to be these days. She’s noticed the difference in her mood and while it’s very much welcomed, it’s also a bit scary. She doesn’t focus on it, though. It’ll only make her mind go to places she doesn’t want it to. 

She opens the door with a welcoming grin, but it falters once she sees who’s standing behind it. 

Veronica’s next to Jughead, his tall frame towering over the brunette’s. There’s a slight frown on her face and she looks absolutely confused yet accusing at the same time. Jughead on the other hand has a sheepish smile on his face that she’s grown way too accustomed to these days. 

“Look who I ran into downstairs,” her best friend says. “Care to explain?” 

“Uhhh…” 

“Hi!” 

Veronica’s head snaps towards the newest voice and her eyes grow wide as she sees Jacob standing next to Betty, backpack on and a smile on his face. 

“You’re very pretty,” he tells her as his cheeks redden. “I like your necklace.” 

“Oh,” Veronica says, obviously taken off guard. She touches the red pendant around her neck. She had long ago gotten rid of her pearls for the custom made necklace that Archie had gotten her for their anniversary one year. “Thank you. What’s your name?” 

“I’m Jacob.” 

“Hi, Jacob. I’m Veronica.” 

He smiles at her, but keeps his face pressed against Betty’s leg shyly. 

“Alright, Romeo,” Jughead says. “Let’s go.” He holds his hand out for his son and Betty looks at Veronica. 

“Hey, could you give me a minute?” She asks the other girl. Veronica looks less than pleased at having to wait for an explanation, but she nods in agreement before waving goodbye to Jacob with a smile and walking into the apartment. 

“How was he?” Jughead asks as soon as they’re alone. 

“Amazing, as usual. We watched Goosebumps today. Imagine my surprise that he’s never seen any of them before.” 

Jughead just smirks at her. “I’m sure he had a good time laughing at all of the monsters. Hey, I had something I wanted to ask you. It’s kind of short notice, but…” 

“What’s up?” 

Jughead looks down at his son who is currently playing with the zipper on his backpack strap, not paying attention to the two adults. 

“So Jacob’s birthday is this Sunday and I’m throwing him a party tomorrow as you know.” Betty nods, she had known this. She had distributed the birthday invitations to all the kids in her class last week. “Well, I was wondering if maybe you’d like to come as well?” 

“Really?” She asks. 

“Yeah,” he says with a smile. “I know he’d really love to have you there. Sabrina’s going. She’s been asking about you,” he says with an eyeroll. Betty smiles as she thinks of the energetic blonde she’d met a while back. “It’s just going to be close family and friends and his classmates.” Betty nods. Over the past few weeks, Jacob has been opening up a lot more with his other classmates and it was wonderful to see. While he still enjoyed to eat his lunch with her sometimes, he now played with a whole group of kids during recess and it warmed Betty’s heart to finally see him getting along with everyone. 

“You can bring a friend along,” he tells her suddenly. “So you’ll be a little more comfortable.” 

She hadn’t thought of that. When she thinks of Jacob and Jughead, she doesn’t feel uncomfortable at all. She finds comfort in the two boys, but she hadn’t thought of what it would be like to go to Jughead’s house, a place where she would know next to no one. 

“Thank you,” she says. “I’ll be there.” 

The tension he’d been holding in his posture fades away as he smiles at her, obviously relieved by her words. 

“Okay, well I’ll see you tomorrow then.” 

She nods. “Bye, Jug. Bye, Jacob!” 

“Bye,” the two of them say in unison before walking away. 

As soon as she closes the door, Veronica coughs. 

“So… I know I’ve been a little busy lately, but I could have sworn I’d remember if you told me you were suddenly so close with Jughead Jones.” 

Betty has to refrain from groaning. She knew Veronica would react this way, which was exactly why she hadn’t told her anything. As much as she loves the other girl, she can become a little much when it comes to Betty’s social life. She doesn’t want her getting any ideas where there’s nothing. 

“It’s not a big deal,” she urges. “I just watch his son for him sometimes.” 

Veronica picks up a large blue lego off of the floor. “Yeah. Sometimes. Is that why your place suddenly looks like a child’s paradise?” 

“Don’t start,” Betty begs. “It’s really not a big deal, okay? Jughead needed the extra help and I adore Jacob. It’s that simple.” 

Veronica tilts her head, studying Betty who suddenly feels a hundred times smaller under the watchful eye of her best friend. Veronica’s always been able to see right through her and this remains true at the next words that she says. 

“You like him, don’t you?” 

“Jacob? Of course I do.” 

“Don’t play dumb,” she says as she drops the lego back to the floor. Betty sighs. “It doesn’t become you. You like Jughead, don’t you?” 

Betty… well, Betty doesn’t really know how to answer that question. She does like Jughead, she enjoys his company and his personality, but she knows that’s not what Veronica means right now. She hasn’t given any thought on how she might actually _feel_ about Jughead and she doesn’t want to think about that right now. If she starts then she’ll never stop and she’ll only make things more complicated for herself. 

“It’s not like that.” 

“Obviously, but do you want it to be?” 

She thinks back to the almost kiss that had happened between them. What if they _had_ kissed? How would things be between them right now? It had happened over a month ago, but that was the last time anything like that had almost happened. Jughead hadn’t tried anything else with her after that and she didn’t really know how to take that. 

She tells this to Veronica, suddenly tired of holding it inside of her. It was actually driving her crazy to think of it. She had way too many thoughts over the almost kiss and half of them weren’t good.

“He tried to kiss you?” Veronica clarifies. “And then Kevin called?” 

“Yes.” 

“Has anyone ever told Kevin that his timing is completely shitty? Do you remember that one time he walked in on Archie and I while Archie was--.” 

“Veronica!” Betty cuts off. “I really don’t want to think about that time.” 

“I know,” the burnette pouts. “Archie had just--.” 

“Anyway!” Betty says loudly. “Yeah, Kevin called, and then Jughead kissed my forehead.” 

“Well, how did he kiss it?” 

“Huh?” 

“Like did he peck it sweetly or did he do that weird open mouth slobbery thing that guy’s do when they really wish they were kissing you somewhere else?” Betty looks at her like she’s insane and she just shrugs. “What? It’s a thing.” 

“Well, no. It was just a sweet kiss.” 

Veronica hums out before plopping herself down onto Betty’s couch, motioning for the blonde to go to sit next to her. 

“Is there anything else that you two have done?” 

Betty fills her in on the occasional dinners and Veronica listens intently. As much as she had wanted to keep this from her best friend, it feels kind of good to be able to talk about it with someone finally. 

“You’re in deep and you don’t even know it.” 

Betty looks down, because she knows that Veronica is right. As much as she didn’t want to admit it, she knows that it’s the truth. She does feel something for Jughead. She can’t really help it, but she can push it away. She knows how to control herself and her feelings and it won’t be a problem. It’ll just suck because of how often she sees him. 

“It doesn’t matter,” she tells Veronica. “Nothing is going to come out of it.” 

“Is it even… legal? Like can you even date a parent?” 

Betty shrugs. It’s a known fact around the school that she takes Jacob home everyday and there’s nothing wrong with _that_. Dating his father though? That might cause some problems. It’s just another reason why she knows that she shouldn’t be having these feelings about him. 

“I’m not dating him and I’m not going to. It’s fine.” 

“I just don’t want you to get hurt, B. Archie has this really cute co-worker, I think you’d like him.” 

Betty looks at her unamused. “After the last guy you tried to hook me up with, I think I’ll pass. Thank you though.” 

“Don’t say I didn’t try.”

Betty gives her a half hearted smile. “So what are you doing tomorrow?” 

“Nothing. Why?” 

“Want to go to Jacob’s birthday party with me?”

Veronica snorts. “Oh, you are such a lost cause.” 

Betty laughs. She knows that what she’s doing isn’t the smartest thing, but she can’t help it. She never really was good at following the rules. 

***

The Jones’ house is… well, it’s something. Betty isn’t sure if you can even call it a house. House just seems like such an inadequate word to use while describing it. 

It’s so lavish and big just from the outside alone, that she’s a bit nervous to actually go in. She stands in front of it, clad in her blue skater dress and she feels unequipped. Veronica had assured her that she looked gorgeous, but she’s suddenly not so sure. Veronica’s purple dress is just as simple as Betty’s but where Betty’s entire outfit is from Charlotte Russe, Veronica’s is custom made _something_ so it doesn’t really count. 

Even the present that she holds for Jacob suddenly feels a hundred pounds heavier. 

“Wow,” Veronica breathes out. “This place is gorgeous.” 

“Yeah.” 

Something in Betty’s voice must sound off because her best friend turns to her, eyes soft and caring. 

“Hey, don’t do that, okay? I know what you’re thinking. It’s just a house, B. Don’t overthink this.” 

“He’s had chicken tenders in my small apartment while he’s living like _this!_ I don’t… V, I don’t think I can breathe.” 

“Okay, well you have about five seconds to pull yourself together because tall, dark, and handsome is walking over here.”

 _“What?”_ She looks up and sure enough Jughead is walking down the steps towards them. God, they hadn’t even made it to his front door without Betty freaking out. She tries to smile at him, but she feels like she might throw up at any moment so it hurts a little bit. 

“Betty,” he greets, happy. “You came.” 

“Yup, that’s me. You call, I come. I’m easy like that.” 

“Oh, god,” Veronica groans under her breath. Jughead gives Betty a weird look, although the smile on his face doesn’t leave, and Betty can feel her soul physically leave her body. 

“I didn’t mean it like that! I just meant that um, I’m easy to get out of the house, you know? I like parties and stuff and um birthdays are fun so…” she trails off, suddenly feeling like the biggest idiot alive. She wonders if it’s too late to call the cab back. 

“Well,” Jughead laughs, “I’m glad you came. It’s nice to see you too, Veronica.” 

“You too. Your home is beautiful.” 

“Yes, well, tell me if you still think the same when you get inside. I’m afraid that it’s been taken over by a bunch of children. I had to hide all the family antiques.” He holds a hand out to Betty. “Come on. Jacob will be happy to see you.” 

Betty stares at his hand like it’s a foreign object and Veronica sighs before shoving her with her shoulder, making her all but fly into Jughead’s grasp. 

As he leads them into the house, Betty glares at her friend but the brunette just winks at her. Veronica looks so calm and put together and Betty would kill for that kind of attitude right now. 

They walk inside of the large home and Betty’s eyes go wide. The foyer is vastly big and more or less empty aside from a coat hanger next to the door and a table with a vase of flowers. There’s a large staircase next to the right of them and windows everywhere, leaving the room bright and full of light despite the fact that no lights are on in it. 

“I’ll give you the full house tour later on, but right now everyone is in the back.” 

“Right,” Betty nods, trying not to show just how nervous she is. 

“You can leave your present on the table,” he says, gesturing to the wrapped package in her hands. “You know you didn’t have to bring something. You already do so much. You too, Veronica.” 

Veronica smiles. “I don’t have kids in the family and I like gifts. Besides, your son is sweet. Unlike some kids I do know.” 

Betty snorts, knowing that she’s talking about the twins and the way one of them tried to cut off her hair in her sleep once. It had been an experience to say the least. 

“Well, I’m sure Jacob will appreciate them. Come on!”

The two girls drop their gifts down on the table before following Jughead around the house and to the backyard. If Betty had thought his house was large, then it was nothing compared to the backyard. Green grass seemed to go on forever. There was a large bouncy house in the shape of a castle that was full of loud children, a face painting station where a girl was currently sitting at, and the children running around all over the place. 

“Betty!” 

She turns to the side and a small blonde runs up to her, hugging her before she can even say anything back. 

“Oh,” she gasps out. “Hey, Sabrina.” 

“I was wondering when I’d see you again!” She pulls away and smiles at her before turning towards Veronica. “Hi, I’m Sabrina, a friend of Jughead’s. I met Betty at my little cafe.” 

“Hey,” Veronica greets. “It’s nice to meet you.” 

“Come on,” Sabrina says, grabbing ahold of Veronica’s hand. “You guys have to meet the rest of the gang!” 

Betty laughs softly, at the way Sabrina seems to immediately warm up to everyone and the way she refers to everyone else as “the gang”. As she tugs Veronica away, the brunette looking completely bewildered, Jughead walks over to Betty with a smile. 

“She’s a bit much.” 

“She’s great.” 

“Yeah, she thinks you’re great, too.” 

She doesn’t ask when Sabrina gets around to talking about her, she just smiles back at him. 

“You look really nice,” Jughead tells her as they walk over to join the rest of the adults. “Blue suits you.” 

“Oh,” Betty says, looking down at her dress. “Thank you. I haven’t worn this in years. I was scared it wouldn’t fit.” She immediately wishes she could take back her words. Why would she even say that? Jughead probably doesn’t wear things twice and she’s over here rocking the same dress she wore to her college graduation. 

“I wore my favorite shoes,” Jughead tells her. It’s only then that she looks down and sees a pair of worn out black boots on his feet. “I don’t get to wear them too often with work and everything. Today seemed like as good a day as ever.” 

The shoes seem to ease her uneasy feeling. They’re old and worn out and Betty suddenly doesn’t feel so off for wearing a dress she’s had for years. In fact, she doesn’t know why she ever felt off about in the first place. 

They approach a table that has a few people sitting closely together with Veronica right smack in the middle. Betty smiles at the way everyone seems to be fawning over her best friend like she’s the shiny new toy. 

“Are they bothering you?” Jughead asks. “They can get a bit excited when it comes to new people.” 

“Oh shut up,” says a girl with long brown hair that has streaks of light purple in it. She looks up towards them and her eyes sparkle with mischief. “Well, well, well. Who’s this?” 

“That’s Betty!” Sabrina says as she leans into the girl’s side. “Remember, I told you about her.” 

“Aren’t you a pretty little thing?” 

Betty just stands there, a bit unsure of how to answer that. Luckily she doesn’t have to be confused for long, because Jughead gives the girl a sharp look, quieting her. 

“Betty, this is Toni.” The girl raises a hand and waves, a smirk still planted on her face. “You’ve already met Sabrina. This is Reggie, my business partner.” 

“Jeez, Jug,” a tall and broad shouldered man says. “Is that how you introduce me to all your friends?” He rolls his eyes before standing up and extending a hand out for Betty to shake. “I’m Reggie, his _best friend_. He likes to forget about it sometimes but I’ve been saving his ass since we were kids.” 

“Nice to meet you.” 

He introduces her to a few more guys with such odd names, Betty wonders how she’s ever supposed to remember them. After the introductions are over and done with, he and Betty take a seat next to Veronica. It’s easy to fall into conversation with everyone and Betty feels like she’s known them all forever. 

“Daddy!” A voice calls out after they’ve been sitting down for about ten minutes. “Daddy, guess--.” The voice cuts off as it grows closer and Betty turns to see Jacob staring at her in complete awe. “Betty! You came!” 

He runs forward and throws his arms around her. She has to angle her body weirdly to hug him back while still sitting in the chair. 

“Hey, Jacob,” she greets. “How’s your party?” 

“So much fun! Do you want to come with me to the bouncy house?” 

“I might be a little too big for that one, buddy.” 

Jacob frowns momentarily before lighting up again. “Would you like to get your face painted? I got Scooby-Doo, look!” He turns his face and sure enough Scooby’s iconic nametag is painted onto his cheek. 

“I love it!” She tells him. 

“Well, come! You can get something, too!” He tugs on her hand eagerly and she looks over to Jughead who’s grinning at her. 

“You heard the boy.” 

“Can I come too?” Veronica asks Jacob, voice soft. He must not have noticed that she was there because he looks taken off guard by her presence before he smiles sheepishly and looks down. 

“Yes,” he tells her. “You can come too.” 

“Aw,” Toni drags out. “Do you have a crush, little Jake?” 

Jacob looks up and glares at her which has everyone else cracking up. 

“Come on,” Betty says as she stands up. “Lets go.” 

Jacob leads the two girls over to the table where a young woman sits at, paints and brushes surrounding her. 

“Hey, birthday boy. Back for more?” 

“My friends want something!” 

Betty and Veronica send each other a smile at the way he refers to them as his friends. 

“Alright,” the woman says, “who’s first?” 

“I’ll go,” Betty says as she sits down in the chair opposite of the woman. 

“What would you like?” 

She hums out in thought. She didn’t really have any ideas in mind so she turns to look at Jacob. 

“What do you think I should get?” 

“A flower,” he says almost immediately. “A yellow flower.” 

She nods before turning to the woman. “A yellow flower it is.” 

She spends the next few minutes sitting still as her cheek is painted on. The paint feels cold and wet and she tries her hardest not to grimace at it. She hadn’t had her face painted since she was a little girl and while it’s fun, it also feels really gross. 

Veronica and Jacob look through a little booklet on the table of other paintings and he fills them in on how his day has been so far. 

Once her face is done, Veronica sits down and has a rainbow drawn onto her cheek.

“Are you excited for cake?” Betty asks Jacob as they wait. 

“Yes. Daddy said I have to open up presents first and then we can eat cake.” 

“You have a lot of presents,” Betty informs him. “It might take awhile to get through them all.” 

Jacob scrunches up his nose. “I don’t care about the presents.” 

“Why not?” She asks with a frown. 

“Because the one I wanted the most isn’t here.” 

Betty and Veronica share a troubled look with each other, both of them wondering what he could possibly be referring to. 

“What did you want?” Betty asks. “I’m sure if you asked your dad, he’d make sure you got it.” Jughead didn’t seem like the type of person to deny his child something they really wanted. 

“He can’t. Grandpa can’t come. Daddy said he doesn’t feel good.” 

All three of the girl’s faces drop at his words. Whatever she had been expecting, it definitely wasn’t that. Her heart breaks at the young boy’s words as she remembers that Jughead’s dad is really sick. 

Jacob digs his shoes into the ground absentmindedly as he looks down and Betty wishes that she could take away the pain that was hurting him. 

“Hey,” she says softly as she leans down and places her hands onto his shoulders, “I’m sure your grandpa really wishes he were here right now too. I bet he’d come if he could. He’s probably missing you just as much as you’re missing him.” 

Jacob doesn’t say anything and Betty’s frown deepens. 

“Maybe your dad will take you to go see him if you ask. Just because he can’t come over here doesn’t mean that you can’t see him.”

“Really?” Jacob asks as if the idea had never once occurred to him and maybe it hadn’t. 

“Really.” 

Only then does he look back up at her and smile. Before she can say anything else, Jughead yells out that it’s time to open presents. Jacob doesn’t look nearly as happy as a child his age should be at the announcement, but he still walks over to the table that Jughead had brought outside that’s full of all his gifts. Veronica and Betty follow behind him and go to stand next to the rest of the adults near the table. 

It’s fun to watch Jacob open the presents, especially since the more he opens, the more his sadness from earlier seems to disappear. 

When he gets to Betty’s present, Jughead makes sure to let him know exactly who the present is from which is kind of embarrassing but Betty lets it slide as Jacob rips the wrapping paper off of it excitedly. 

“Oh!” He says as he sees what it is. 

She had gotten him a lego Scooby-Doo set, because he was always building things both in her classroom and her apartment and she wanted to make sure that he kept the hobby up. He was really talented at building things with legos, especially for someone his age, and she wanted to indulge him in any way that she could. 

“I figured we could work on it together,” she tells him. “It’ll be fun.” 

“Thank you, Betty!” He says happily as he runs over and throws his arms around her. “I love it.” 

“You’re welcome, buddy.” She runs her hands through his hair before he pulls away and goes back to his spot. 

“Okay,” Jughead says, “I got you one more present.” Betty’s eyes widen. Majority of the presents on the table had been from Jughead and they weren’t cheap ones either. She wonders what else he could possibly have. “This one was a little too big to put in a box though.” 

Everyone looks at him in curiosity except for Sabrina, Toni, and Reggie who are all smiling with sincere happiness. 

Jughead walks away from the group and inside the house for a few moments. When he comes back out, Jacob lets out a loud squeal that has Betty jumping in the air. 

An older man is walking slowly next to Jughead and Betty doesn’t even have to guess who it is. She already knows that it must be Jughead’s father. 

He’s an exceptionally handsome man, with peppered hair and a beard to match. He’s tall and lean, but he doesn’t look sickly at all or even fragile. In fact, if it weren’t for the way he seemed to be leaning on Jughead for support, she wouldn’t have guessed that he was sick at all. The thought saddens her immensely. 

“Grandpa!” Jacob cries out, running over to the man and engulfing him into a hug. It’s feels so intimate that Betty almost has to look away, feeling like she’s intruding on something very personal. 

Sabrina, Toni, and Reggie all walk over to the man and say hello. They look like a family and it’s only then that Betty realizes how close they all must be. They weren’t just Jughead’s friends, they were the people who had stuck by him while he had to deal with both his father’s sickness and running a company. They were the people who had probably offered him so much support and would have gladly given up anything to help him. They’d been by his side when he had to deal with some of the hardest stuff in life. They were his family. A part of her wishes that she could be there for him like that. She wishes she could let him know that she wanted to offer him as much support as she could, but it wasn’t her place. 

The man walks over to the table and Jughead announces for everyone to follow Sabrina to cut the cake. Betty’s about to head that way when Jughead stops her. 

“Hey, Betts, I wanted you to meet someone.” 

Her heart pounds in her chest. Why would he introduce his father to her? He hadn’t introduced any of the other parents to him. What made her so special? 

“Hello,” the man says, voice deep but yet so welcoming. “I’m FP. You must be Betty.” 

“Yes, hi. It’s really nice to meet you.” 

“You too. Jacob never stops talking about you. Jughead either for that matter.” Betty’s head snaps towards Jughead in question, but he just smiles at her. “You’re very beautiful. I can see why he’s so taken with you.” 

She feels like she’s having a completely different conversation. Jughead? Taken with her? For a second she wants to tell FP that he must have it all wrong. That’s not what this is. Her and Jughead aren’t anything. Right? 

“Well, you raised a good man,” she says instead. “It’d be hard to say I didn’t feel the same way.” 

FP’s smile grows at her words. “He needs someone like you.” 

“Dad,” Jughead groans out, sounding so young and boyish that Betty can’t help but laugh. 

“Okay, okay. I’m going to go get some cake now.” He nods towards Betty before turning around and walking away from them. 

She suddenly feels a little awkward now that she stands here with Jughead. She doesn’t know what to tell him and even if she did, she wouldn’t even know where to start. 

“Do you want to help me get some drinks from inside?” 

“Sure.” If it means that they can put a halt to this conversation then she’ll gladly get some drinks. Jughead puts a hand on her back and leads her inside. She tries not to focus on his hand and how it feels against her back. She tries not to think about how she wishes he’d touch _more_ of her.

Once they’re inside of the kitchen, Betty lets out a sigh. 

“This is beautiful,” she tells him. It almost makes her wish she knew how to cook. She figures that this kitchen would be every chef’s wet dream. 

“Perfect for chicken tenders and macaroni, don’t you think?” 

Betty glares at him while he laughs. 

“Don’t laugh! Jacob told me that you’ve burnt macaroni before so I don’t want to hear it.” 

“Well,” he says with a smirk, “maybe one day you can show me how. It’d be nice to put this kitchen to good use.” 

She looks at him dumbfounded. “You want me to cook for you? In your house?” 

He stares at her and she bites her lip at the way his eyes seem to darken as he runs them over her body. It suddenly feels ten times hotter in the room and she’s aching to get some air. 

“There are a lot of things I want you to do in my house, Elizabeth,” he says lowly. “Things _I’d_ like to do to _you._ Cooking doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface.” 

“Oh,” she says, suddenly out of breath. “Okay.” 

“You don’t even know, do you?” 

“Nope,” she says, trying to keep her cool. “I know absolutely nothing ever.” 

Jughead smiles and places the pack of drinks onto the table as he walks closer to her. She stays completely still against the counter and holds her breath as he all but cages her against it. They’ve never been this close before and it’s making her a little bit dizzy. 

“The things you do to me,” he whispers out as he runs his hand against her side lightly. “The way you make me feel.” He caresses her cheek and she leans into the touch. “I’ve wanted you ever since you yelled at me that first day.” 

“That was a good day,” she says shakily. 

“Mhm,” he practically purrs out into her ear. He isn’t even touching her anymore, but her body still feels like it’s on fire. “Do you want this too?” 

She doesn’t even have to think about it. The word comes flying out of her mouth automatically. 

“Yes.” 

She’s expecting Jughead to ravish her right there and then against the kitchen counter, in fact she’s welcoming it. Instead he takes a step back from her and lifts her chin up with his index finger. 

“Are you sure?” He asks again and Betty nods. 

He cups both of his hands against her cheeks and brings his face down to hers, finally pressing his lips against hers. 

She closes her eyes as she focuses on the way his lips feel. They’re both cold and hot, soft and slightly wet. They fit against hers like they were made for each other and she leans into his body, wanting to be closer to him. She doesn’t know how long they stand there kissing, but when he finally pulls away from her, she leans against the counter, trying not to lose her balance. She doesn’t know how a kiss can make her feel so much, but it does. 

“I’ve wanted to do that for a while,” he admits. 

“Me, too.” 

He smiles at her before grabbing the pack of drinks off of the table. 

“We should get going before anyone notices we’re gone.” 

She nods and follows him all the while wondering just what the hell she’s done. As much as she wants to hate what just happened, she doesn’t. She loves it and she knows that Veronica was right. 

She’s in way too deep.


	7. Chapter 7

Jughead Jones is a lot of things. He’s tailored suits and fancy watches. He’s $200 meals and black sleek cars. He’s late nights and early mornings. He’s rough talking and hard headed. He’s worn out boots and washed out flannels. He’s a juicy burger and french fries. He’s vivacious and smart. He’s an open book and crossed out words. He’s soft kisses in empty hallways and gentle touches in public. He’s flirty emails when they’re apart and colorful flowers when he misses her. 

Betty Cooper is in way over her head where he is concerned. 

They’ve only been doing this _thing_ for a little while now and everyday Betty finds herself falling deeper and deeper for him. It’s not like she has a choice, though. She doesn’t think any woman could ever resist Jughead if he showed an interest in them. 

“Hot date?” 

Betty whirls around from where she’d been doing her hair in front of her mirror to see Veronica standing in front of her. 

“You know, you need to stop sneaking in here.” 

“It’s not sneaking in if you gave me a key.” 

“I didn’t give you a key,” Betty reminds her as she goes back to curling her hair. “You had one made because you said you were having ‘Betty withdrawals’.” 

“Well, I was. I’m always having Betty withdrawals! But that’s not what we’re talking about right now. Is Jughead taking you somewhere?” 

“Not particularly.” Veronica looks at her, waiting for her to continue. “He invited me over for dinner at his house.”

Veronica whistles. “That’s kind of a big deal, isn’t it?” 

Betty nods. It’s a huge deal. They’ve only been doing this little back and forth game for about two weeks and they’ve gone on the occasional lunch date during that time, but dinner at his house seemed really serious; especially because she knew that Jacob would be there as well. It just felt like a big step forward in whatever it was that was going on between them. She called it casual dating, but she wasn’t exactly sure what Jughead would classify it under. That could be a topic for another time, though. This was still new and she wasn’t trying to push anything.

“Kind of like a little family,” Veronica says lightly but Betty hears it anyway and glares at her. 

“No.” 

“Yes. You’re literally having dinner at his house with him and his son. I think that qualifies as family dinner.” 

Betty frowns, realizing that her best friend is right. 

“Don’t you think that’s a little too fast? Is all of this happening too fast? Should I call and cancel? Oh god. I should cancel, right?” 

“Hey, hey,” Veronica says quickly, walking towards her. “No, that’s not what I meant at all. There’s no such thing as moving too quickly, B. If you like him and he likes you and you’re both happy then there’s absolutely no reason for you to be freaking out right now.” 

“I’ve just never had something like this,” she admits. “I know it’s early and everything, but it just feels so much more serious and real than everything I’ve ever had in the past.” 

“Maybe that’s because it is. Jughead had to grow up at an early age, you know, with the company and being a single father. He’s a serious guy, but I’ve also seen the way he is around you. You’re just the kind of girl that he needs; fun and lively, someone who can remind him that life can still be fun.” 

“I really like him, V.” 

Veronica smiles at her, reaching out to touch a loose curl. “I think he really likes you, too. Maybe you should be having this conversation with him, though. I’m sure he’ll ease your mind a lot better than I ever could.” Betty smiles and nods, feeling better. “Alright, so what are you wearing tonight? Honestly I have this really cute black sweater that I can totally ask Archie to bring over here.” 

 

She goes to Jughead’s home with a plate of fresh baked brownies. Her mother always told her that it was only polite to show up with something if you were invited over for dinner. She was still working on her cooking skills, but her brownies were to die for. Or at least that’s what Archie said the one time he decided to smoke a joint in college and ate a whole pan full of them. 

As she stands in front of Jughead’s house this time, she doesn’t feel as nervous or scared as she did the first time. She feels calm and excited even. It’s a stark contrast, but she welcomes it. 

She rings the doorbell and only has to wait for a few seconds before the door is opened for her. Jacob Jones stands in front of her, grinning from ear to ear. 

“Betty! Hi!” 

“Hey, Jake. How’s your weekend so far?” 

“Okay. I cleaned my room!” He says it so happily and Betty gives him a high five before jokingly asking if he’ll come over and clean her room too. That earns her a scrunched up look and a small ‘no’. 

When they get into the kitchen, the table is already set. Jughead hadn’t been lying when he said they’d be eating at 6:30 sharp. 

“Hey, you,” he greets her, placing a gentle kiss onto her forehead. “Baked goods?” 

“Brownies,” she says as she holds the pan out to him. “I hope you have a sweet tooth.” 

“Definitely.” He says it with a smirk and she just gives him an unimpressed look. “You can set them on the counter. They smell really good.” 

She smiles and puts them down. “Do you need my help with anything?” 

“No, no. Do you want water? I’m not a big drinker, but I’m sure Reggie might have left a beer somewhere in the back of my fridge.” He’s still smirking and Betty realizes that he’s telling her the same thing she had told him when they first ate dinner together at her apartment. 

“Water’s fine.” 

They all sit down together and eat dinner, which is surprisingly good. Betty’s about to praise Jughead for it whenever Jacob lets her know that it’s actually takeout food that Jughead had just decided to put on the good china. 

“Traitor,” Jughead whispers to his son and Betty shakes her head in disbelief as she laughs. 

“You know, if you needed my help cooking all you had to do was ask.” 

Jughead gives her an unamused look. “I guess it’s a good thing you brought brownies, isn’t it?” 

“Indeed.” 

Dinner goes on normally, discussing everything and nothing all at the same time. Jacob talks about a play date he’d had with Christopher that afternoon and Betty smiles at his stories. Jughead listens intently as well, obviously happy at the news and Betty wonders if he’d known how closed off his son had once been. 

Jacob was beginning to become a stark contrast to the quiet and shy boy he was at the beginning of the year. It made her incredibly happy but also insanely proud. She wonders what, if anything, changed. Maybe he just needed to become more comfortable with his classmates, but a part of her thinks that maybe there’s something else there, too.

After dinner they watch a movie, thankfully that isn’t a Disney one, but that Jacob still finds entertaining. They all sit together on a large white couch in the living room; Jacob in the middle of Jughead and Betty. Occasionally he gets up to act out different scenes of the movie and it has Betty and Jughead roaring with laughter.

It isn’t until they’re halfway through the movie that Jacob suddenly gasps and stops moving. 

“Betty, come with us to the movies tomorrow!” 

Betty looks at him, taken aback by his sentence. 

“Daddy said we can go see a movie, come with us!” 

She looks at Jughead, almost like she’s asking for permission. Despite the past few weeks and how they’ve grown closer, they haven’t actually all gone out together. For some reason it seems a lot more _real_. It seems like it’s a big step towards… What had Veronica called it? Becoming a little family? 

For once the thought doesn’t scare Betty off. She isn’t worried about it. Instead she thinks about it and she finds herself excited, hopeful, and eager to see what Jughead has to say about all of it. 

“If you’re not busy,” he says, smiling playing at his lips. “Be warned though, this officially makes you a part of the popcorn challenge.” 

“Popcorn challenge?” She asks with a laugh. “What’s that?” 

“Daddy gets the biggest popcorn bucket and we try to finish it!” Jacob informs her, obviously excited about this little tradition. “We almost won, but he dropped the bucket.” 

“The butter made it slippery,” Jughead defends himself. 

“You seem to have a lot of excuses for yourself,” Betty tells him. 

“I stand by all of them.” 

“I’m sure you do.” 

“What does that mean?” He asks, a playful glare on his face. “Is there something you want to say to me, Miss Cooper?” 

“Definitely not, Mr. Jones.” 

“I think you’re lying.” He turns to Jacob, who’s watching the entire ordeal with a grin on his face; clearly enjoying the two adults playful banter. “What do you think, buddy? Do you think Betty’s hiding something?” 

“Yes!” 

“Jake,” she yelps with a laugh. “Who’s side are you on here?” 

“Daddy’s!” 

Jughead hollers with laughter before giving his son a high five. “That’s my boy!” Before Betty can even blink, Jughead moves closer to her and presses his palms against her sides, tickling her. 

“No!” She cries out through laughter. “Stop, stop, stop!” 

Jacob joins in on the tickling as he yells out “payback” and Betty can feel tears start to trail down her cheeks. 

“Okay, okay,” she gasps out when her sides finally begin to hurt from laughing. “I give! I give!” Only then do the Jones’ boys pull away from her, both wearing matching smiles on her faces. “That wasn’t fair!”

“I think it was,” Jughead says. 

“Oh yeah?” Betty turns and looks at Jacob, giving him a smirk. He catches on to what she’s thinking right away and the both of them launch forward. 

Jughead’s laughter rings out throughout the house followed by Betty’s and Jacob’s. Her sides hurt from laughing so much, but she wouldn’t change a single thing about this. 

 

Jacob eventually becomes tired and Betty and Jughead both put him to sleep after he requests that Betty read him a story. It’s something she’s never done, not even for the twins, and she’s glad that she’s about to share such a monumental thing with him. It might not seem like a big deal to other people, but to her it’s everything. 

After he’s officially crashed out, Jughead turns on the nightlight in the corner of the room, and closes the door behind them, leaving it open just a little. 

They walk downstairs and Betty makes to grab her coat. 

“It’s still kind of early,” Jughead blurts out and her hand stops midway. “If you, you know, wanted to hang out.” 

“Hang out?” Betty teases. “What are we? Teenagers?” 

“You wish you knew teenage me,” he jokes. “I was… something.” 

She knows that he’s only joking, but a part of her wishes that she had known him back then. She wonders what he was like before all of this; before he was forced to grow up and run a multi million dollar company. 

“Where did you fall on the food chain in high school?” She asks, dropping her hand and following him back to the living room. “Let me guess. Jock?” 

He snorts as he sits down on the couch. “Hardly. My dad would have loved that. I did try out for the football team, but only because Reggie forced me to. I left tryouts with a broken wrist.” 

Betty’s mouth drops open in shock. “No way.”

He brings up his arm and pops it weirdly, making it look out of place. It makes a gross sound and Betty squirms and scrunches up her face at it. 

“That’s disgusting,” she remarks as Jughead pops it back into place. “It just does that? Are you sure it’s fully healed?” 

“Yeah,” he says. “But that was the end of my football career. I was kind of a loner in high school.” 

“A loner who is now a CEO? Why does this feel like a really cliche novel?” 

“I don’t know what kind of novels you’re reading,” he says with a smirk, “but I guess. What about you? Let me guess. Straight-A golden girl who was the pride and joy of her hometown.” 

He’s smiling at her still, but she frowns slightly. She wants to be able to tell him that he’s wrong, but she can’t. He’d gotten it right away and she’s not sure why it upsets her as much as it does. 

“Yeah,” she mumbles. “Pretty much.” 

“Why do I feel like that’s not a good thing?” It should surprise her, the way Jughead seems to be able to read her so easily, but it doesn’t. 

“I don’t know,” she admits. “I mean, it wasn’t anything bad. It’s probably really good. It’s just… I had really high expectations, not of myself, but to live up to; in my parents eyes, you know? And I didn’t and so sometimes it just feels like I didn’t just let them down, I let down all these other people.” 

“I’m sure that’s not true at all, Betty.” His eyes are soft as he reaches over and grabs ahold of her hand comfortingly. “I don’t know what you were like back then, but you’re incredible now. Those expectations you think you had to live up to? I’d say that you definitely exceeded them.”

She pauses at his words, wondering if she should tell him the next part of the story. It’s something no one else know, not even Archie and Veronica. She was too embarrassed to ever tell them, but as she sits in front of Jughead right now, she doesn’t feel embarrassed or ashamed like she usually does. She trusts him and she wants to be open with him. 

“I got into Yale Law,” she admits to him, voice gentle and eyes downcast. His eyes widen and he looks at her like she’s a completely different person. 

“Holy shit,” he says under his breath. “That’s amazing, Betty.” 

“I didn’t go.” 

It’s quiet for a second and when she looks back up at him, his eyebrows are furrowed. 

“I don’t understand. Why not? Did you not have the money?” 

She shuts her eyes, because this is the part that she hates admitting. “I had a scholarship.” 

He squeezes her hand again and she looks at him, trying to hide the embarrassment and shame that’s starting to creep up on her. It’s not supposed to feel this way with him. 

“I’m trying to understand you, Betts,” the use of the nickname and his gentle tone ease her mind, “why didn’t you want to go?” 

There. He understood. He understood that it wasn’t that she _couldn’t_ go, it was that she didn’t _want_ to go. 

“My whole life my parents bragged to the town about how I’d be some business woman and I’d be living in the big city with my own company or something and I just… hated it. I think I hated it so much because of how much they pushed it on me, but I never said anything about it. I just kept letting them believe that I wanted the same things they did.” 

“I think I must have wanted it too at some point,” she continues. “But it was just one of those thing where it becomes your parent’s dream, not yours, and you just suddenly can’t stand the thought of it, but my parents aren’t exactly the kind of people you say no to. So I filled out all the applications and I wrote all the essays and I sat down for all the interviews and the next thing I know I’ve been accepted into one of the biggest Ivy schools in the nation, and I just… wasn’t happy.” 

She remembers the way her parent’s had thrown a party for her when they heard the news; close friends and family only, but either way it had been the most humiliating thing for Betty. All these people were congratulating her and praising her and she felt like the biggest fraud. It was a life she didn’t want. 

And then Polly got pregnant. 

Polly got pregnant and everything changed. 

“My sister informed us she was pregnant right after I got the acceptance letter and that’s when everything got so much worse.” Jughead runs his thumb over her knuckles, encouragingly. “My parents really turned up the heat then. Everyday I’d get some kind of speech about how I was the perfect child, the one who would make them proud, the one who would go places, and it was just too much. It was too much pressure, too much expectations, and I snapped.” 

“I told them I had secretly applied to college here in Washington and they flipped out. They threatened to take everything away from me. They let me know that if I didn’t go to Yale, I was on my own. I thought long and hard about it, you know? I know how insane I must sound, throwing away a scholarship to one of the best schools in the country, but I just didn’t want it.”

“Hey,” Jughead says gently, “that’s not insane. Crazier things have been done than deciding not to put yourself through something you wouldn’t enjoy.” He gives her a soft smile. “You chose not to go down a path that would have made you miserable. That’s admirable, Betty.”

She laughs humorlessly. “I wish they would have seen it that way. It was the biggest slap in their faces. If I didn’t want to be a lawyer, then what the hell did I want to be? You should have seen their faces when I told them I wanted to be a teacher.” She remembers the day she had told him. “They actually laughed in my face and told me that maybe I was dumber than I had been letting on all these years. So I came to college over here. I got a scholarship, but not nearly as much as Yale was paying. I started working at a restaurant in Seattle the summer before my freshman year and that’s where I met Archie. I worked my ass off to pay the rest of my tuition, so…” She laughs suddenly. “Jesus, when did those become about my origin story? I’m so sorry, I probably put a damper on this whole night.” 

“No, you didn’t,” he promises. “Thank you for telling me this. It means a lot to me. I want to know everything about you, Betty.” 

“Do you think I’m crazy? Choosing teaching and a life full of debt?” 

“You’re still paying off your tuition?” He asks. 

“Yeah.” It’s not exactly the worst, but on a teacher’s salary it’s not ideal. “Things with my parents aren’t so bad anymore, but they make it a point never to bring up college or my career. They won’t help me with paying it off.”

He purses his lips together in thought, but before she can ask him what he’s thinking, he gives her a smile. “I don’t think you’re crazy. You would have been miserable if you had done what your parents wanted you to do. I’m proud of you. It couldn’t have been easy.”

Deciding she wants to change the subject, she looks at him with a smile. “What about you? Was running your father’s business always in your cards?” 

He laughs and shakes his head, leaning back against the arm of the couch comfortably. Betty brings her legs up, getting comfortable herself, feeling like this story is going to be a good one. 

“Definitely not,” he admits. “I mean I think I always knew that one day I’d be running it, but I didn’t think it’d be so soon. I wasn’t anywhere near ready.” 

“What were you like?” She asks. “Before all of this?” 

He smiles, wistfully. “You would have hated me if you met me back then. I was wild. Reggie and I had just started our senior year of college and we were insufferable. My dad constantly threatened cutting me off and taking me out of the will.” Betty’s eyes widen at that, but Jughead laughs. “He would always tell me that he was going to give everything to JB, because I obviously wasn’t disciplined enough for any of it and he was right.” 

“I was like every other rich kid asshole out there.” Betty tries to picture it, Jughead Jones acting like Oliver Queen pre Lian Yu and she smiles. “Drinking every night, blowing money on the dumbest shit alive, gambling in Vegas every weekend; I was a nightmare. All my dad ever wanted from me was for me to grow up and take my business degree seriously. I told him I wanted to become some kind of biker gang leader, kind of like Sons of Anarchy or something.” 

Betty laughs loudly. “You? In leather with a motorcycle?” 

“You laugh now, but it happened.” 

“Really?” 

He nods. “That’s how I met Jacob’s mother. One night when Reggie and I were in Vegas at a casino, some girl comes up to me and she’s like nobody I’ve ever met before. I remember thinking that she was the most beautiful girl I had ever seen up until that moment.” Betty smiles sadly at the look on his face, because she obviously knows how this story ends. Like he had done for her earlier, she reaches out and places a hand on his knee in comfort. 

“She was dangerous. I should have known that from the moment I saw her, but I was a stupid kid and she knew exactly how to play me. One moment we’re exchanging flirty smiles over cocktails and the next thing I know, we’re in bed together in a penthouse. A one night stand turned into breakfast and then dinner and then a second date and the next thing I know, I’m head over heels for this girl I didn’t even know.” 

“You loved her,” Betty says sadly. 

He shakes his head. “I thought I did. I swore I did, but I was an idiot. Her name was Alyssa and she was older than me and I thought she was some kind of unattainable woman. I felt lucky that she even looked my way. I was a fool for her and she used it to her advantage. It started off small at first; her pointing out a pair of $1,000 earrings or mentioning that she’d like a new pair of designer shoes.” 

“Oh, my God,” Betty says in disgust. “I’m so sorry, Jughead.” He shrugs like it’s not a big deal, but Betty can see that it clearly upsets him. She had felt uncomfortable when he had paid for her dinner, she couldn’t imagine asking him to buy her thousand dollar jewelry just for the hell of it.

“It wasn’t anything I wasn’t used to, people were always using me for my money and I didn’t mind buying her things. I think I felt like if I did everything she wanted me to, that she’d love me.” 

Betty’s heart breaks for him, for a man who always seems so much larger than life, he looks so small right now and she finds that she doesn’t like it. Jughead should never look the way he does right now. 

“And then I met her family,” he continues. “Imagine my surprise when I find out she’s the daughter of some local gang leader. I didn’t think anything of it at first. I was just happy that her dad seemed to really like me. I should have known there was some kind of ulterior motive.” 

“That’s when things started getting a little more serious. At first, she’d ask if I had any friends who did drugs, people her family could sell to. Then she was asking me for money for debts they owed and before I knew it, I was slowly getting wrapped up into this world of drugs and crime.” He looks at her sadly. “How awful is that?” 

She thinks he’s asking her rhetorically until she realizes that he’s asking her in the same way she had asked him earlier if he thought she was crazy; he’s seeking out _her_ opinion.

“It’s not awful,” she answers honestly. “She manipulated you.” 

He snorts. “If only you knew. When I finally started to realize just how fucked up it all was, how I was basically putting my entire life on the line for her, while she just used me over and over again; when I finally started to listen to Reggie about how I was just a puppet towards her, that’s when I found out she was pregnant.” 

“Oh, Juggie.” 

“She used it to her full advantage,” he whispers. “At first I didn’t even believe her, but a doctor’s appointment changed all of that. I was scared out of my mind. I hadn’t even graduated college yet and I was supposed to become a dad? It just seemed so out of reach. She threatened to make sure I’d never see my child if I left her, if I left the gang.” 

“I’m so sorry,” Betty tells him, scooting closer towards him. “What happened? How did you get out of it all?” 

“My dad,” he says with a smile. “Reggie’s actually the one who told him everything. He wasn’t disappointed in me like most parents would have been. Instead, he reached out to her family and I still don’t know what happened, but they left me alone; made it clear that if I wanted to leave the gang and everything else behind, that I could. That’s when Alyssa went ballistic. She made it clear to me that she never loved me, that I was nothing but a plaything for her whenever she was bored. She didn’t want the baby, even threatened to…” he trails off, but Betty doesn’t need him to finish the sentence. 

“I paid her so much money just for her to _keep_ the baby,” he laughs. “How fucked up is that?” 

A single tear slips from Betty’s eyes as she tries to picture what Jughead had gone through all those years ago. 

“I’m proud of you,” she echos the words back to him that he’d said earlier. “That couldn’t have been easy; to realize that the woman you thought you loved didn’t feel the same.”

“It wasn’t, but that’s life. All I knew was that there was the little life inside of her that I already loved. Despite everything that happened between us, I loved that child from the very beginning. I paid for every single hospital bill and made sure she had everything she needed. Even from the beginning, he was my world. When he was born, a part of me hoped that she might change her mind, that she might love him just like I did, but she didn’t. She left me, left _him_ , and I think that’s when everything finally settled in place for me.” 

“It wasn’t hard to get over her,” he admits. “Because I never really loved her to begin with. I loved how dangerous she was. I loved how she seemed to be so mature and unattainable, but that’s never what I wanted.” He smiles. “So yeah, I had Jacob and it really made me grow up. It made me look at my future in a completely different way. I wanted to be better for him. I wanted to be able to give him a good life and all the things he could ever ask for. So I took school more seriously and I worked side by side with my father and when the time came and he needed me to take over the company, I did. So I can’t really hate her or the things she put me through, because in the end she gave me Jacob and the will to grow up.” 

Betty leans forward and places a hand on his cheek. He leans into the touch and closes his eyes before turning his head and pressing his lips into her palm. It’s sweet and soft and it’s a side of Jughead she thinks that only she sees. It’s a side of him that she’s thankful to see. 

“I’m sorry you had to go through all of that,” she tells him. “But I’m happy that I met you now. I’m happy that you were able to become the strong and amazing man that you are today. I don’t know how I would have felt about you back then,” they both smile at that, “but I know that I’m so lucky to know you now. I can’t even picture my life without you in it now.” It seems a little deep, a little too much, but it also seems so right. If it were anyone else, she’d be scared that she’s moving too fast, but with Jughead, she doesn’t feel that way at all. It feels like this is exactly where they’re supposed to be. 

“You don’t have to,” he says, leaning forward and placing a chaste kiss against her forehead. “I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone like you before, Betty Cooper.” 

“Good or bad?” 

“Good,” he promises. “So good. You know, I think you came into my life right when I needed you.”

“Yeah?”

He nods. “I was getting really caught up with business, late nights and early mornings. I wasn’t home as often as I should have been and I wasn’t really being the best father.” He frowns. “It was taking a toll on Jacob, I could tell. He was becoming more closed off and quiet.” Well, that answers her question from earlier. “It wasn’t until you snapped at me that one afternoon that I realized I needed to change, so thank you. You didn’t just open my eyes, but you helped me connect with my son again. You’ve done so much for me already and you don’t even know it.” 

She smiles and brings their lips together. She doesn’t think she’ll ever get used to kissing him; it’s so intoxicating. She’s had boyfriends before, but nothing like whatever this was with Jughead. 

“We’re kind of a cliche,” he says with a smile when he pulls away. “The CEO and his son’s teacher.” 

“Have I ever told you how much I love cliches?” Betty says. “Because I do.” 

“Thank you,” he says as he intertwines their fingers. “For caring for Jacob. I know it’s not something most people sign up for for when dating…” 

“Hey, if it weren’t for Jacob, I can assure you, _this_ would be pretty nonexistent.” He laughs at her words. “In fact, I think Jacob deserves a big thank you for bringing us together.” 

“Kind of like a little happy family.” Once he says the words, he looks at her, eyes wide like he hadn’t meant for them to slip out; like he’s worried she’s going to freak out. 

Betty’s smile grows and she tries to ignore the happy tears that pool up in her eyes. 

“Kind of like a little happy family,” she agrees. Veronica had been right, she had nothing to worry about. It was all she had ever wanted and more. 

“You know,” Jughead says, “I know you don’t like being alone and truth be told, I don’t either. Stay with me tonight?”

“Jughead Jones, you sly boy. Is this you trying to have your wicked way with me?” 

“Shut up,” he says with a laugh. “We’ll just sleep. I have a big bed, I’ll stay on my side I promise.” 

When her and Jughead do end up finally going to bed that night, it’s cuddled up together on his bed; her legs intertwined with his, her head on his chest and his arms around her. It’s the first night in a long time that she goes to sleep with a smile on her face. The feeling of being alone is completely void and it seems so far away. 

He presses a kiss into her hair. 

“Goodnight, Betts.”

She tries to answer him, but she’s so tired; already falling asleep in the comfort and warmth of his arms.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :) look at them, being so open with each other. hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. love ya'll.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to Ten for reading over this and making me crack up with your amazing commentary. Writing wouldn't be nearly as much as it is without you. 
> 
> I hope you guys enjoy this WHATEVER THIS IS, BECAUSE IT'S DEFINITELY NOT WHAT WAS SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN  
> love ya'll :')

When Winter break finally comes around, Betty is more than excited for it. It’s not that she’s necessarily excited for the holidays, she’s just excited for a break from school. As much as she loves the kids, she’s exhausted from having to wake up so early and she’s hoping to catch up on all the hours of sleep she’s been missing out on. 

The school day is spent watching movies and playing games, so all in all it’s a fun and easy time. Still though, she has to refrain from doing a happy dance when her final student leaves her classroom. 

“You about ready?” She asks Jacob who’s helping her put everything up. “Daddy said for us to meet him at his office by four.” 

It’s something that slips out every now and then. She’d been so used to saying “your” in front of the phrase, but then one day she stopped and just left it as is. 

“Can we get ice-cream?” Jacob asks. “Please.” 

“Jake, it’s literally like thirty degrees outside.” 

He pouts, big blue eyes widening at her. “But I want cotton candy ice-cream.” 

“Can’t we just get regular cotton candy?” His frown deepens and she curses herself. One day she’ll learn how to tell him no, but for now… “Fine, but when your dad gets mad at me, I’m blaming this all on you.” 

Jacob grins and runs over to hug her with his face plastered in a grin that stretches from ear to ear, making her forget about how absurd it all is. She’d do nearly anything just to make sure that Jacob was always happy, even if it didn’t exactly make sense sometimes. Jughead was constantly telling her that she needed to learn how to say no to him sometimes, but she just told him that she would do that as soon as he did. 

They didn’t spoil Jacob; it’s not like he ever asked for outrageous things. He’d ask for ice-cream or a new book, if they could get McDonalds; small things like that. She’s sure that if he ever did ask for something insane that she’d be able to tell him no, but ice-cream? Ice-cream was nothing. 

When the classroom is finally clean, Betty leads Jacob out of the room, locking the door behind them.

“You excited for break?” She asks. “You get to sleep in!” 

“Yeah, I like Christmas.” 

Betty nods. What kid doesn’t like Christmas? She remembers how much she used to love it whenever she was younger. It didn’t matter that she stopped believing in Santa Claus when she was around seven years old; she still loved it all the same. It wasn’t about the gifts, it was about the comfort and happiness it brought. It was one of the few times that her family actually felt like a _family_. She tries not to focus on that right now. She hadn’t been to a Christmas with the Coopers in a while, and as much as it looks like something out of a winter movie to an outsider, the whole situation is always fraught with tension and ends in tears. She had tried; her first year at college, but things were so wrong. It just wasn’t the same. Ever since then, she opted for Christmases with Archie and Veronica, who may not be the perfect family, they have their quirks and weird ways of doing things, but it makes for a much more memorable Christmas. At least Archie and Veronica made her feel safe and loved year after year and were the perfect and only chosen family she had.

At least they were back then. 

She looks down at Jacob who’s holding onto her hand as he kicks his feet into the snow. She thinks she could add two more people into that mix, because somewhere along the line, Jughead and Jacob were slowly becoming a bigger part of her world. 

The drive to Jughead’s company is spent with terrible, loud singing along to the Disney radio station. They’ve just finished singing _I Just Can’t Wait To Be King_ whenever Betty finally pulls up in front of Jughead’s building. She’s glad to see that there’s actually open parking in front of it.

She’s never actually been inside of Jones Inc. before and she feels a little shy as she stands in front of it holding onto the hand of the CEO’s son. She knows that Jughead works on the top floor and she spends the entire elevator ride with a quick beating heart, the sound of it shaking the elevator, while Jacob just walks around in little circles, saying that it makes him feel like he’s floating. He’s got a dazed smile on his face. She wonders just how often he gets to come here.

She doesn’t know why she feels so nervous. Her and Jughead are past all of that, she’s here with his son for God’s sake, but still. It’s a little intimidating. The entire building is clean and pristine, with marble floors that shine and furniture that looks more expensive that her entire apartment building. 

The heels of her knee high boots click against the floor as she walks up the desk of what she can only presume is Jughead’s personal secretary. 

“Hello,” she says kindly when she finally reaches the desk. 

A young woman looks back up at her, probably twenty-five or twenty-six. The first thing Betty notices about her is that she is drop dead gorgeous. Blue eyes stare back at her, so icy that they almost look absolutely transparent. It’s kind of haunting.

“Mr. Mantle is on the floor beneath this one for future reference,” she says with a slight snark, “him and Jughead are in a meeting right now.” 

Mantle? Isn’t that Reggie? Betty frowns, not understanding what Reggie has to do with anything or why this girl would think that she was trying to see him. The second thing that strikes her as odd is that she’s referring to Jughead by his first name. Isn’t that a little inappropriate to do with your boss? The uneasy feeling in her stomach grows. 

“I’m not here for R--Mr. Mantle,” Betty says, smiling at the woman still, although now it’s a little wobbly. “I’m actually here to see Jughead Jones.” 

This catches the other woman’s attention. She actually pulls her face away from the computer in front of her to stare at Betty, eyes full of judgement. 

“He doesn’t have any appointments,” the woman says. “Sorry. You need to schedule a meeting with him if you want to see him. He’s a very busy man. He doesn’t just allow walk-ins.” 

“Walk-ins?” Betty questions, completely embarrassed. “I’m not a walk-in. I--.” 

The woman stands up and walks around the counter, only then does she spot Jacob and her hard look fades away as she stares at the young boy. 

“Hey, Jakey!” She greets, voice now warm and bubbly. “How are you, buddy?”

“I’m fine, thank you.” He’s frowning and Betty wonders if he can tell what’s going on right now. 

“You must be his nanny,” the woman says. “Sorry about that. You just don’t look like they usually do. Jughead likes to hire girls who are more… well-groomed, for lack of a better word. I thought you were one of Reggie’s girls. They’re always in here wanting charity.” 

Betty is absolutely floored. She stares at the girl and tries to decide if she’s actually serious right now. Is this how she speaks to everyone? Betty had done absolutely nothing to her and she was treating her like she was dirt on her red bottoms. 

She doesn’t think she looks bad at all. She’s wearing her favorite jeans and a brand new baby blue sweater. She thought she actually looked really nice today, but as she looks at the gorgeous woman in front of her and her obviously expensive designer dress, she suddenly feels like she needs to get out of here. 

“You can leave Jake with me,” the woman continues, ignoring the obvious hurt on Betty’s face. “There’s no need for you to stay here. Did you bring a taxi? I’ll give you some money.” 

“I’m not his nanny,” Betty finally says, voice a bit shaky. And why would she assume that Betty wouldn’t have money for a taxi on her? The whole conversation is off putting and she wishes it would end.

The girl gives her a weird look. “Then what are you?” 

What are you? The question is so simple, but Betty can’t even answer it. What is she? Is she Jughead’s girlfriend? Is that what she is? The word doesn’t sound right at all and she can’t bring herself to answer the question. Luckily, she doesn’t have to.

Loud laughter booms throughout the floor and the girl turns towards it, but Betty feels like she can’t really move. 

“Hi, Mr. Jones,” the girl says. “Someone came by to drop off Jacob.” 

Jughead’s smiling, the aftereffect of his laughter, and the smile only grows once he sees Betty. 

“Betty,” he says happily. “Why didn’t you buzz me, Heather? Betty’s on the list. You don’t keep her waiting.” His voice is a little stern as he says the words and only then does Betty snap out of her thoughts. 

“Oh,” the girl-Heather-says. “I didn’t know.” 

“Her name is literally on the list,” he repeats again. Betty wants to tell him that Heather wouldn’t know that because she hadn’t bothered asking Betty her name at all. Jughead looks at her and he must see that something’s wrong because he frowns. “You okay, babe?” 

Babe. He’s never called her that before and it’s exactly what allows her to do what she does next. 

With a confidence that feels a little fake, Betty walks over to Jughead, and places her hand onto his chest as she tiptoes and places her lips against his. She can tell that he’s taken off guard, but soon enough he’s leaning into the kiss and wrapping his arms around her, pulling her closer. 

“Hey!” Reggie yells after a few seconds. “Can we keep it PG in here? We have a small, innocent child and Jacob!” 

Betty pulls away from Jughead, who’s still stunned, and laughs. 

“Gross,” Betty hears Jacob say in the background. All she can focus on is Jughead though, who’s staring at her like he’s never really seen her before. 

“I missed you,” she tells him, which yes, is true, but she also might be saying it out of pettiness. 

“I missed you, too,” he says with a smile. 

“Alright, alright,” Reggie says, “this is disgusting. Heather, are we done with our meetings for the day?” 

Betty had completely forgotten about the rude secretary and when she turns around to look at her, the woman is staring at her with a look of absolute fury, but Betty can tell she’s trying to conceal it. 

“Yes,” she tells Reggie with a tight lipped smile. 

“Alright, I’m out.” He gives Jughead a nod before turning and giving Betty a hug. “Lovely as always to see you, Betty.” And then ruffles Jacob’s hair. “See you later, little man!” 

“Alright, my two favorite people--.” 

Before Jughead can finish up the sentence, Betty erupts into laughter. He gives her an affronted look and she shakes her head. 

“I’m so sorry, you just sounded like such a dad when you said that.”

“What?” He asks, bewildered. “I _am_ a dad!” 

“I know, but you know what I mean.” 

Jughead just gives her a funny look before rolling his eyes at her. 

“You can leave for the day,” he tells Heather. “Thank you.” 

She looks wary of leaving, but ends up nodding and smiling at him. It takes all the impulse control in Betty to not give her the dirtiest smile.

“Let me know if you need me for anything else, Mr. Jones.” 

Betty has to refrain from not completely showing her distaste for this woman. She’s never been a territorial person, or even a jealous one, but she didn’t like the way Heather kept looking at Jughead. Aside from that, she also didn’t appreciate the way she had been so rude to her earlier, thinking her Jacob’s nanny. What if she had been his nanny? What was so wrong with that? Why did that suddenly make her less than Heather with her expensive shoes? Betty liked her comfortable winter boots and her warm sweater. She wasn’t going to let some random girl make her feel bad about what she decided to wear. 

The three of them get in the elevator, leaving Heather behind, and Jughead looks over at Betty happily. 

“You look very nice today,” he says honestly. “Is this a new sweater?” 

“Yeah,” she says, elated that he noticed. “Veronica and I went shopping last week and she said it’d look nice on me.” 

“She was right. So tonight I have this dinner with my dad and sister. I was wondering if you’d like to come.” 

Betty straightens up. She hasn’t seen FP since the day of Jacob’s birthday and she’s never actually met JB before, the other girl had to work on the day of Jacob’s birthday so she missed the opportunity. She’s been eager to actually sit down and talk with all of them as a family. Family was a big thing to her and she wanted to be able to connect with Jughead’s. 

“Yeah,” she says a little too quickly. “I’d love to.” 

He nods before whispering ‘good’ and turning over to Jacob. “You excited for dinner at JB’s tonight, buddy?” 

“Is JB cooking?” He says with a scrunched up face. 

“No,” Jughead laughs. “I don’t think so.” 

“Okay.” Jacob smiles then and Betty looks at Jughead in confusion. 

“Let’s just say that the entire Jones family is kind of bad at cooking,” he admits. “Might have to do with the fact that none of us ever really had to worry about cooking for ourselves.” 

Betty just shakes her head and clicks her tongue at him. “I’ll teach you one day. If anything you should _at least_ know how to make mac and cheese.” 

“I know how to make it now!” He says, offended. “Will you ever let that one go?” 

She smirks at him before the elevator doors open up and then they all walk out together. 

“Do you want a snack?” Jughead asks Jacob as they walk over to Betty’s car. “We won’t be eating for a while. Are you hungry?” 

“Nope, Betty bought me ice-cream.” 

Jughead’s eyes widen as he looks at her. “Ice-cream? It’s thirty degrees outside!” 

“Oops,” Jacob says with a giggle as he slides into the back seat of the car. 

Betty just gives Jughead a sheepish smile and he snorts. 

“You two are a nightmare,” he complains but he’s still smiling so Betty will take it. 

 

JB Jones lives in a nice, modern one story house. It has Christmas decorations up and Betty falls in love with the sight. 

“We should decorate your house,” she whispers to Jughead as they get out of the car. 

He looks down at her with a soft smile that she doesn’t even notice. “Yeah?” 

“Yeah,” she says. “It’d be fun. Have you ever decorated it before?”

“Just a tree.” 

“Well, you need more,” she insists. “Maybe this week? I’m off and Jacob and I could start and you could help us after work if you aren’t too tired.” She starts to realize that she’s rambling and she looks at him, slightly embarrassed. “Is that overstepping? Sorry. I just get really excited about stuff like this.” She’s been spending more time at Jughead’s house these days and she’d really like to have it seem more like a family place for them, but she doesn’t know how he’ll take it all.

He squeezes her hand. “You’re not overstepping. There’s nothing I’d want more than that, Betty. Seriously. If you ever want something, all you have to do is ask.” 

She just nods, because the front door is being open before she can actually think of anything else to say to him about the subject. 

Out walks a girl with short black hair and green eyes. She’s a simple kind of pretty, but she has on a smile that look so pure and lively that Betty thinks she might be one of the loveliest people she’s ever seen.

“Well, well, well,” she sings out. “If it isn’t my favorite brother and my favorite nephew!” 

“I’m your only brother,” Jughead says with an eyeroll. 

“Yes, well I’m sure if we had another brother, you’d still be the favorite.” The two of them hug before she bends down over to Jacob. “Hey, buddy! How’s it been? How does it feel to finally be six years old? You look bigger already!” 

Jacob laughs before standing up straighter, trying to seem taller. “I grew one inch!” 

JB’s eyes widen playfully, the way adults often do when they’re indulging a child. “No way? Soon you’re going to be taller than me!” 

“That’s not hard,” Jughead snorts. “You’re like 5’1.”

JB glares at him before standing up and facing Betty. Suddenly she feels ten times smaller under his sister’s watchful eye. She really wants JB to like her. She doesn’t know what she would do if Jughead’s sister didn’t like her. 

“You’re really pretty,” JB says. “Are you sure you’re with the right Jones’ sibling?” Betty’s eyes widen and Jughead groans. “I’m just kidding,” she laughs. “But really, it’s nice to meet you. I’m Jellybean, but you can just call me JB.” 

Jellybean? Betty hadn’t known that. She figures it has to be a nickname, but she doesn’t comment on it. She just smiles and shakes her hand. 

“It’s nice to meet you,” Betty says honestly. “You have a gorgeous home.” 

“Thanks! I just moved here recently. It’s closer to work and everything.” She moves aside. “Come on in, you guys. Dinner’s pretty much ready.” 

The three of them head inside and Betty takes her time walking into the kitchen, looking around at all of the stuff inside JB’s house. There are pictures placed everywhere; on tables and the walls, and Betty smiles as she looks at them. Jughead doesn’t really have a lot of pictures up at his place, just the occasional ones of Jacob, so it’s nice to see a little more history here.

There’s a picture of two kids outside, laying in the grass. A boy with the happiest smile holds up a toy truck in his hands and a girl with curly hair holds a bunch of freshly picked flowers. Betty can’t help but to stare at the beauty and simplicity that’s captured in the photograph. 

“He was a happy kid,” JB says from behind her softly. “He wasn’t always so serious about work and life.” Betty wants to tell her that he isn’t that bad, because he’s really not. Sure, he’s serious and more often than not he’s frustrated over something with the company, but he knew how to have fun too. “My dad says that Jug’s been a lot happier and carefree since he met you, so thank you for that.” 

“Don’t thank me,” Betty says while shaking her head. 

“Why not?” JB asks, tilting her head. “It’s probably true. I love my brother to death, but he’s a hard ass.” Betty laughs, shocked, and JB smiles. “Either way, I’m glad he has you. He needs someone like you; someone who can make him feel alive again.” 

Betty smiles, touched at the words. They’re almost similar to the ones that FP had told her at Jacob’s birthday party and she doesn’t know what she’s done to earn the approval of the entire Jones’ family, but she’ll take it. 

“Come on,” JB says, linking her arm through Betty’s. “The Jones’ men do not take too kindly to empty stomachs, which I’m sure you know all about.”

The two of them walk into the kitchen, which resembles Betty’s own back at her apartment rather than Jughead’s over the top one. Jacob is standing next to FP, who’s sitting down and listening to him rattle on about his day. Jughead’s head in currently in the fridge, probably getting drinks, so Betty walks over to his dad. 

FP’s face lights up as he sees her and the way he smiles suddenly makes him look ten years younger. She can see Jughead in his eyes and it only makes her feel more comfortable around him. 

“Betty,” he greets. “I’m glad you could make it.” She walks over to him and leans down to give him a hug so that way he doesn’t have to stand up for her. 

“It’s nice to see you again. How are you?” 

“I’m good. Jacob tells me you two are finally off for Winter Break. Any plans?” 

She shakes her head. She hasn’t really discussed anything with Archie and Veronica yet, but she thinks that this year she might be spending the holidays alone. They’ve been talking about going on a cruise, somewhere sunny, and Betty has a feeling if they come back it won’t be as girlfriend and boyfriend anymore. Archie’s been trying to take the next step in their relationship and Betty isn’t really too keen on tagging along for that. 

“None yet,” she tells him. “I’m kind of a last minute person.” 

Jughead walks back over to the table, several glasses in his hands and a frown on his face. “You don’t spend the holidays with your parents?” 

She just shakes her head, not really wanting to get into details with him around everyone. He already knows the issues she has with her family, but she hadn’t really expanded on it and let him know that the last time she actually spent any holiday with them had been years ago. She did go back to Riverdale occasionally, but it was never for long; usually just for birthdays. 

“I usually work on Christmas,” JB says as she scrunches up her nose, obviously changing the subject for her. “I swear my boss hates me. I literally always work the big holidays.” 

“Can’t relate,” Jughead says. 

“Must be nice to work for yourself,” she says as she sticks her tongue out at her brother. 

“Why don’t you spend Christmas with your family?” 

Everyone’s head snaps over to Jacob, who’s looking at Betty sadly. The entire atmosphere shifts and Betty wants to sink into the floor as she feels everyone’s eyes on her. 

“They live really far,” she says, which isn’t a complete lie. She doesn’t really have money to be flying to Riverdale all the time, but she knows that if her relationship with her family was better, that she would, no matter the cost. “I usually spend it with my best friends.” 

“But what about your mom and dad?” He presses and as much as she doesn’t want to think about this, she understands his confusion. To a small boy like Jacob, who’s obviously very family oriented, it must sound absolutely absurd that Betty doesn’t spend a big holiday like Christmas with her parents. He was too smart for his own good, but she didn’t want to tell him the truth. How do you even begin to explain her circumstance to a child as pure as Jacob? 

“I see them other times,” she says simply, smiling so it doesn’t seem like a complete lie. “We send each other cards. They work a lot, too, especially during the holidays.” It’s not the total truth, but it’s not exactly a lie either. It seems to be enough for Jacob, who just nods before turning his attention back to FP. 

“I got a hundred on my spelling test,” he tells the older man excitedly. 

“Did you? What words did you have to spell?” 

And just like that, the awkwardness fades away. Jughead walks over to her and squeezes her shoulder gently, letting her know that he’s there for her. Even JB gives her a soft smile and Betty tries to ignore how that makes her feel. She’s not used to people feeling sorry for her and she isn’t sure if she likes it. She’s used to letting people down and getting looked down at; this was a different feeling entirely. 

Dinner is fun. The Jones family is one that’s made up of laughter and jokes, even little Jacob Jones is dishing them out left and right. Betty has to stop herself from snorting into her glass of water several different times. 

She learns that JB works full time down at the hospital as an RN and that she’s taking classes to open up her own clinic. She’s ambitious and determined and it’s a trait that Betty notices in Jughead as well. It makes the admiration she feels towards the entire family grow. 

FP and Jughead discuss a bit of the business and he mentions that he’ll be stopping by sometime soon to check up on everything. It’s obvious to see how much the company means to him, and Betty’s sure that it must have been hard for him to let it all go, but she sees the way his eyes fill with pride as Jughead fills him in on what’s going on. 

All in all, she has a lot of fun and she feels closer to his family as she begins to learn small details about them; like JB is lactose intolerant and hates ketchup. FP has to cut his steak into squares completely before he eats it and he absolutely has to have lemon with his water. They’re insignificant little things, but she locks them away into the back of her mind, happy to know them at all. 

After they all finish eating, they actually play a board game. Betty hasn’t played one in years and she’s pretty sure they only really play for Jacob, who is way too competitive when it comes to Candyland, but Betty loves it. After “winning” twice in a row, Jacob ends up passing out, head in Betty’s lap and feet propped up onto Jughead’s lap. 

“We should probably head out,” he tells his dad and sister. “Thank you for inviting us.”

“Well, no shit,” JB snorts. “Why wouldn’t I invite my family over to my house?” She stands up and they all follow her, Betty a little slower as she picks up Jacob from the floor, holding him against her with his face resting against her shoulder and his legs hanging off her side.

“I can carry him,” Jughead offers, holding his arms out, but Betty shakes her head. 

“I got him.” 

Jughead’s face softens and he smiles and nods before turning back to his sister. “Well, we’ll see you soon. Christmas still at my place?” 

“Yup.” They hug and then JB leans in to Betty, kissing her cheek. “It was so nice to meet you, Betty. Come around more often. It’s nice to see that someone could get that stick out of my brother’s ass.” 

Jughead rolls his eyes and Betty just laughs. 

“Thanks, JB, I’m glad we finally got to spend some time with each other.” She turns to FP, who brings her close to him, pressing a kiss to her temple. 

“Have a good night, Betty.” 

“You too,” she says with a smile. 

Jughead says goodbye to his dad and sister one more time and then they’re walking out of the house and back to the car. 

“Stay over?” Jughead asks when they’re halfway to his house. 

“It’s cute that you still ask me,” Betty says with a lazy smile. “Makes me feel like we’re teenagers in high school or something.” 

“One day I won’t ask you anymore. You’ll just know.” 

“Know what?” 

“That you belong there, always.” 

 

Later that night, after Jacob’s tucked into bed, Betty and Jughead lay down in the large king sized bed that she’s grown accustomed to. The silk sheets are wrapped around them, just as they’re wrapped in one another. 

They haven’t had sex yet. Betty’s been wanting to and she knows that Jughead wants it as well, but she knows it’ll happen when it’s time. She doesn’t want to rush that. She’s more than willing to wait if that means it’ll make it all the more special. 

Betty plays with his fingers as she rests her head against his chest and he runs a hand lazily up and down her arm. 

“You know you’re part of this family now,” Jughead whispers to her. “Everyone adores you; _I_ adore you.” 

“Do you?” She asks, teasingly. 

“Mhm,” he hums. His hand leaves her arm and trails across her waist, his fingertips tickling her side lightly. “I adore your skin and how soft it is.” He moves his hand underneath her shirt and trails it across her stomach, up to her chest, and then his fingertips ghost along her nipples. A gasp leaves her lips at the gentle touch, but it’s gone before she can even focus on it. 

“I adore your lips.” He brings his other hand up and places a finger underneath her chin, tilting it up to press his lips to hers. They move together like this is a dance they’ve done a million times before. They know each other in a way that they’ll never know anyone else; absolutely and wholeheartedly. In such a short amount of time, Jughead Jones has managed to invade all her senses and she can’t even remember a time before him. All she knows is now. 

He pulls away and before she can even blink, his hands grip her waist and he pulls her on top of him as if she’s weightless. She giggles at the action and Jughead smiles back at her. 

“I adore the way you can laugh at any given moment.” He holds onto her hands and rubs his thumbs against them soothingly. “I adore the way you look at my family and see yourself in there.” She leans down at that and presses a kiss against his forehead. When she pulls away, he has a dreamy look on his face. “I adore everything about you, Betty Cooper. I still can’t believe you’d ever settle for me.” 

“Settle?” She asks, tilting her head. “I don’t think settle is the word I would use. I didn’t know what it was like to not be alone before I met you and Jacob. Sure, I had Archie and Veronica but they had each other. When it came down to it, all I had was myself. Until now. Until _you_. I’m not settling for you, Jughead. I’m just… with you.” 

“Yeah? With me?” 

“Yeah,” she whispers, leaning down and kissing him. “Only you.” 

“You don’t ever have to feel alone again,” he promises her. “I’m yours; in everyway that a person can be, I _am_ yours.”

She smiles and Jughead sits up, bringing their chests closer together. 

“Show me,” she commands. “Show me you’re mine.” 

He rolls them over, pressing her body into the bed. She knows what happens next here and nothing has ever felt more perfect. 

“Are you sure?” All it takes is one nod from her and Jughead brings his face down, peppering kisses into the crook of her neck. Occasionally he’ll nip at the skin there, biting down gently, and Betty sighs at how good it feels. She doesn’t know how it’s possible to feel so much from just a kiss, but she’s sure that Jughead could get her to come this way if he really wanted to. 

His lips leave her neck and trail down her body as he lifts her shirt up, exposing her top half to him completely. His lips ghost her chest, kissing under her boobs and then the side of them, before he clamps onto her nipple with his teeth. Betty hisses as he tugs on it gently. She glares down at him, but they both know that she doesn’t mean it. Nothing’s ever felt so good. 

Jughead winks at her before letting go of it, licking at it to soothe the sharp pain that had been there, but it was already gone as soon as he’d pulled away. He moves onto the other one after that, giving it the same treatment, and this time Betty finds herself leaning into his sharp bite, loving the slight pain that it gives her before the absolute pleasure takes over. 

Once he’s satisfied there, he moves down to the plain pink panties she’d been wearing. He runs a finger over them, putting slight pressure on her clit and she can’t help the way her hips buck up at the touch. 

He looks up at her and raises an eyebrow in question and Betty has never been quicker about saying yes as she nods her head eagerly. She needed him there like _yesterday_. 

She honest to God yelps when Jughead rips her panties instead of just pulling them down her legs like a normal person. 

“Juggie!” She scolds. “Those were brand new!” 

“I’ve always wanted to try that,” he laughs, boyish grin on his face that has Betty rolling her eyes with a smile. “I’ll buy you more, baby. I’ll buy you the whole fucking store if it makes you happy. I’ll buy you black ones; I bet you’d look so beautiful in black lingerie. Would you wear black ones for me?” 

Her mouth goes dry as she nods, mesmerized by the dark look in his eyes. 

“Yeah? You’d model for me, wouldn’t you?”

“Yes,” she whispers. His mouth is right at her clit and every word he says, every breath he takes, she can feel it there and it’s driving her insane. He knows what he’s doing, she can tell by the way he’s smirking up at her. 

“I bet you’d be the prettiest model.” 

“Jughead,” she groans. “Shut up and do something useful with your mouth.” 

His eyes widen and his mouth drops open, obviously taken aback by her commanding words. He gathers himself up again, smirking at her. 

“Yes, ma’am.” 

The words barely register with her before he presses his mouth against her, tongue flicking out and lapping at her like it’s the last thing he’ll ever do. She arches her back, pushing herself into him more. It feels so good, better than anything else she’s ever done and she grips at his hair, needing something to tug on as her orgasm begins to build up. 

As his tongue moves against her, he pushes a finger into her gently, pumping it in and out several times before adding another. It just adds to the pleasure she’s already feeling and when he curls both of his fingers inside of her and does a figure eight with his tongue, she completely comes undone. 

The grip on his hair tightens as she opens her mouth, a silent scream coming from it. Her back arches off of the bed and Jughead eases her through her orgasm. She lets out a loud moan and only then does Jughead pull away from her, pressing his lips to hers as they sloppily begin to make out. Their tongues are dancing with each other and Betty can actually taste herself on him, which just drives her even more wild. 

She pushes him up and then rolls them over so that he’s on bottom now. He looks up at her, completely enthralled and Betty smirks. 

Silently, she tugs off the boxers he’d been wearing to bed, leaving him just as bare as she is. She takes ahold of his cock and tries not to think about how big it looks in her small hands.

“You gonna ride me, baby?” He asks, voice slurred with lust and eyes hooded. 

“Mhm,” she purrs as she lines herself up with him. She’s never actually ridden anyone before, she’s never felt the need or the interest, but with Jughead it had just come so naturally; the need to please him, to make him feel just as good as he had her. 

Gently, she lowers herself onto him. They both moan out as the tip of him slides inside of her; she’s getting used to the stretch and he’s getting used to how warm and wet she is.

“You’re so fucking tight,” he hisses out as he clutches at her hips, fingers digging into her skin.

“Good or bad?” 

“Good,” he moans. “So fucking good, baby.” 

That gives her confidence and with a sly smile, she slides all the way down until she’s actually _sitting_ on him. She feels so full and it’s almost _too_ much, but she’ll be damned if she gets up. She’s never felt anything this amazing before and she presses her palms into his stomach as she groans and throws her head back, reveling in the feeling of him being completely inside of her.

Once she’s gotten used to his size, she lifts herself off of him to where he’s almost not even inside of her anymore and then she slides back down in one fluid motion. Jughead throws his head back into the pillow at that and so Betty does it a few more times before she begins a steady and quick pace, grinding her hips into him as she bounces up and down. 

Jughead’s grip tightens on her before he actually holds her up and off of him. She looks down at him in confusion, not understanding why he’s stopped her, but before she can actually say anything, he begins to snap his hips up into her at a quick and rough pace. It’s intense and she nearly screams from how amazing it feels. 

He rolls her onto her back, positioning himself on top of her, and then he begins to thrust into her just as quickly and roughly as before. It’s not like how they started out and Betty knows that it must mean that he’s close to coming too. 

His movements get sloppy and not before long, the both of them are moaning out as they reach their high. Jughead presses their lips together and Betty’s nails trail down his back as she comes once more. 

He slides out of her slowly and rolls onto his side. Betty giggles to herself as she props herself up on her elbow. 

“So,” she drags out, “am I really getting new panties? Because those were actually really cute.” 

Jughead laughs loudly into the darkness and Betty bites her lip as she smiles. 

“I told you, I’ll buy you the whole damn store. Anything you want, it’s yours.” 

“I just want you and Jacob,” she answers honestly. It’s all she’s ever wanted. 

Jughead turns and smiles at her as he reaches out and cups her cheek in his hand, running his thumb across it affectionately. 

“You have us,” he says matter of factly. “Spend Christmas with us.” 

“Really?” She whispers. 

“Yes. You, me, Jacob; I can’t think of anything better.” 

Neither can she.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks to my girl Ten for reading over this. :) 
> 
> enjoy this late update!! love you guys <3

“Right there!” Betty instructs. “Yes, awesome!” Jacob turns around, proud grin on his face, and high fives her. They’ve been decorating the house as much as they can the past few days. She found a little blow up set of Santa’s elves and reindeers and she’s sure that Jughead’s never had something so tacky on his front yard before, but her and Jacob absolutely loved it. They were currently lining up the walkway to the house with little colorful lights and Betty was excited to turn them on for the night. 

She might have went a little overboard, it’s true. Jughead’s kitchen is currently stacked with all kinds of things to make and create gingerbread men and houses. She’d gotten every kind of icing that Walmart had available and she’d even bought some cookie cutters so they could bake cookies later on. Jughead didn’t have to work the next day and she was ready for them to finally be able to do something altogether to get in the Christmas spirit. 

“Does it look okay?” Jacob asks, circling around the walkway, trying to determine whether he deems his work acceptable or not.

“It’s perfect!” She suspects that it’ll snow soon, if the weatherman is to be trusted at all, and she can just picture how beautiful it’ll look with their little decorations. “Do you like it?” 

He nods quickly. “I like decorating.” He fumbles over the word a little bit and Betty just smiles as he eventually gets it right. “Can we make the cookies now?” 

“Sure,” she says. “And maybe when Daddy comes home later, we can decorate the gingerbread men?” 

“Okay,” he agrees happily, taking ahold of her hand and rushing her inside of the house. 

They decide on chocolate chip cookies to start off with, because what’s better than a classic, right? Somewhere along the way, Betty opened up her favourite seasonal playlist and Christmas music fills the house from the speakers in the living room. The two of them sing along loudly while rolling dough and choosing between snowflake and Christmas tree cutouts. Jacob’s got some green frosting smeared on his cheek even though she hasn’t even opened it yet. He must have opened it himself, but she can’t really bring herself to mind.

“Did you make cookies when you were little?” Jacob asks once Betty puts the first batch inside of the oven. He’s sitting on the counter, kicking his little legs against the cabinet door underneath them. 

“Yeah,” she says with a smile. “My mom loved baking, especially during Christmas, and I loved to help her. My sister and brother didn’t really like it, but I did. It was kind of our special thing.” The memory saddens her. Despite everything, she misses how easy things used to be with her mom. She misses baking with her and wrapping presents together. She hasn’t had that in so long. In fact, she hasn’t even baked with anyone else since the fallout with her parents; not until now at least. 

“So,” Jacob starts, voice softer and eyes darting around, “if we bake cookies together, does that make you like my mom?” 

She drops the cookie dough that she had been holding and it falls into the bowl with a loud thud. Her head snaps up, but Jacob is looking anywhere _but_ at her. She’s at a complete loss for words. A part of her is internally crying at the words, at the fact that he could even feel something like that for her. But another part, the bigger part, has to remind him that he actually does have a mother; a mother who she _isn’t_ , no matter how shitty she might be. 

“You have a mommy,” she tells him gently. 

“I don’t,” he says calmly as he looks back up at her. Her heart breaks at how completely unbothered he looks by the whole thing. Betty wonders if Jughead’s ever even mentioned Jacob’s mother to the younger boy or if it’s a taboo subject around here. “But if I did, I would want her to be like you.” 

Tears prick her eyes. He says the words so simply, not knowing the way they mean absolutely everything to Betty. She loves this little boy in front of her as if he was her own and the fact that he can look at her and feel the same way, is so unimaginable to her. She doesn’t know what to say or do next.

Her heart aches; a sudden burst of anger flows through her at the woman who could have abandoned this child. A child so pure and beautiful, with a heart so gentle and kind; a child so intelligent it’s a joy to even be able to listen to the words he says and the things he comes up with. If Betty had ever been blessed to have a child as wonderful as Jacob, she would never let a day go by where he didn’t feel loved. 

So she walks over to him and hugs him. He seems a bit startled at first, but then he hugs her back, a little _too_ hard, and Betty thinks that maybe he gets it. 

“If I had a son,” she whispers, “I could only hope he’d be just like you.” 

She doesn’t tell him that he already feels like her own. She forces the tears back into her eyes, refusing to cry about this. 

“Betty?” Jacob whispers against her collarbone. “I wish you were my mom.” 

She doesn’t tell him that she wishes that too, even though a part of her really wants to. Despite everything that Jughead’s told her about Jacob’s mother, the woman still gave birth to him and so Betty can’t say she wishes that weren’t the case. If there’s even a slight chance that he could have come out differently, given different circumstances… Well, he’s perfect just the way he is and Betty wouldn’t do a thing to change that. 

“What in the world happened to my kitchen?” 

Betty pulls away from Jacob to see Jughead standing behind them in the kitchen. He’s still dressed head to toe in his work clothing and Betty bites her lip at how handsome and clean he looks. As much as she loves when he dresses down, seeming him in his expensive suits will always do something for her. 

“We’re making cookies!” Jacob announces, the solemn mood that had been over them officially gone from his mind. 

“Oh yeah?” Jughead asks, smiling now. “What kind?” 

“Chocolate chip,” Betty responds just as Jacob holds up the cookie cutters to show him the shapes. “Would you like to help?” 

“I’d love to,” he says as he takes off his suit jacket. A piece of paper falls from it, one he doesn’t notice, and Betty walks over to pick it up from the floor. 

“What’s this?” She asks, a bit rhetorically, as she reads it over. It’s an invite for a Christmas party and it’s done up on glossy paper with an elegant font written across of it. 

“Oh, that,” Jughead says absentmindedly as he rolls up his sleeves. “Heather made them for the office. There’s an office Christmas Party tomorrow night.” 

Betty immediately wants to roll her eyes at the mention of the other woman before she realizes that they aren’t in high school. Realistically she knows that she has nothing at all to worry about; she was the one in Jughead’s bed the other night, not anyone else, but still. It’s easy to see that the woman has feelings for him and it’s annoying to witness. 

“Are you going?”

He hums in thought. “Probably. It’s good to at least show my face since I’m the boss and all. I usually only stay for an hour, though. Parties aren’t really my thing. Reggie’s the one who demands we keep it going.” 

“A party seems like fun,” she says lightly. She wants an invite. She wants an invite just so she can show up on Jughead’s arm and stick her tongue out at Heather. She doesn’t care if it’s immature. She’s only twenty-four so she thinks she’s allowed a bit of immaturity every now and then. “Haven’t been to one of those in a while.” 

Jughead smirks at her. “You don’t seem like the partying type.” 

“That’s where you’re wrong, Jughead Jones. I was quite the party animal in college.” It’s a lie. Veronica had been the party animal. Betty was the girl who stood in the corners and watched after her best friend. Parties were fun, but they weren’t her scene at all. Jughead didn’t have to know that, though. 

“Were you?” He laughs. “Well, would you like to come with me? It’ll probably be pretty boring honestly, which is the only reason I didn’t say anything to you earlier. Also, I’ll have to get a sitter for Jacob.” 

“Can’t he come?” Betty asks with a frown. 

“Well, yeah,” he says, a little bit thrown off. “I just thought you meant you wanted it to be the two of us.” 

“No?” She says, making it sound a little bit like a question. “I want us all to go; as a family. Isn’t that only right as the head of the company?” 

Jughead smiles; the same dreamy smile he does everytime she refers to them as a whole unit. 

“I love it when you talk domestic to me.” He leans in and kisses her on the cheek, turning to Jacob once he pulls away. “You wanna come to the Christmas party with us, buddy?” 

“Will there be kids?” 

“Yeah,” Jughead confirms. “There’s a whole set up for the kids.” 

“Will Emily be there?” 

Betty looks at Jughead, completely shocked by the question. 

“Who’s Emily?” She asks with a smile and a playful tone. 

“She’s Mrs. Alaniz’s daughter,” Jughead says, “and yes, she’ll be there.” 

“Cool. Okay.” 

“A crush?” Betty whispers to Jughead, not wanting to embarrass Jacob. Jughead just winks at her and she shakes her head with a smile. “Alright, well you can start on the gingerbread men!” 

She puts him to work as he starts to organize all the extra things she had gotten for the occasion. She’d even bought a huge cut out pan for their gingerbread men that she was really looking forward to using. Jacob was watching the oven carefully, waiting for it to ding and alert them that the cookies are ready and Betty was standing by with her mittens ready. 

“So your friends,” Jughead speaks up after a while, “Archie and Veronica? What do they do for Christmas?” 

Betty shrugs. She actually has no clue what the two of them are doing this year. In fact, she doesn’t really know if they have anything planned at all. They sure haven’t mentioned anything to her, not that she’d join them this year considering she had already decided to spend it with Jughead’s family. 

“Veronica usually likes to go somewhere sunny for the holidays, but they haven’t mentioned anything about it to me. Why?” 

“Well, I was thinking and I know that they’re kind of like your family and you’re kind of like my family now,” he smiles at her when he says it, “and it’d be nice to really get to meet them. Veronica was lovely and Jacob really liked her. It’d be nice to be able to meet Archie as well. If they don’t have anything planned, do you think they’d like to spend Christmas here?” 

Betty looks at him in shock. “Jughead, no. That’s sweet, but I wouldn’t want to impose.” 

“You’re not imposing,” he says with an eyeroll. “They _are_ your family Betty, the family you’ve chosen, and I think it’s important for us to all come together sooner or later. They could just come over for Christmas lunch. It would give us the chance to all get to know each other. Besides, we usually have way more food than we can take down. Reggie’s spent the holidays with us before, it’s not a big deal.” 

It means the world to her; that Jughead actually wants to get to know her friends. She doesn’t think most men would usually care for stuff like that. She bites her lip as she thinks it over. 

“Are you sure it would be okay with you? With JB and your dad? They won’t mind the extra company?” 

Jughead snorts. “Are you kidding me? JB will probably adore Veronica and my dad will finally have someone to talk about football with.” Betty smiles, remembering that she’d told Jughead about how Archie was a huge sports fan. Apparently Jughead couldn’t careless about sports. “I know Jacob would love it. If they’re fine with it, then I would love to have them here. The more people the merrier; it really feels like Christmas that way.” 

Betty smiles. Despite everything, Jughead still manages to surprise her with how kind and family oriented he is. That fact that he understands just how important Archie and Veronica are to her and that he’s extending an invitation to them, means more to her than she could ever begin to express. 

“Thank you,” she says softly. He just smiles at her before going back to working on setting the dough inside of the pan. 

The timer dings and Jacob gasps before jumping off of the counter and leaning down in front of the oven, peering inside of it from a safe distance. 

“They’re ready,” he sings out, grabbing a mitten that Betty had laid out for him. 

Together, they open up the oven and take out the pan, putting it on the stovetop to cool off. 

“I get first cookie,” Jughead says. 

“No!” Jacob retorts. “Betty does.” He looks up at her with a smile, a soft and gentle thing, the kind that looks like it has a story behind it. 

“We’ll half it,” Betty tells him.

Jughead stands by and watches the exchange, knowing that something’s changed in the dynamic between the two of them, but whatever it is, it’s for the better and he just smiles to himself, content with letting them go first for anything as long as it makes them happy. 

 

Betty yawns into her Starbucks cup. She had realized last night that she didn’t exactly have anything to wear to a company Christmas party, especially not one as prestigious as Jughead’s. She had suggested that she go shopping with Veronica later on, but Jughead had insisted on going with her himself, which was why she was currently dead on her feet at Neiman Marcus. 

“Couldn’t we have at least waited until lunch time?” She whines to Jughead, who’s currently eyeing dresses on mannequins. “I’m sleepy.” 

“You’re cute,” he teases her, not taking his eyes away from the options in front of him. “It’s better that we do this earlier and get it out of the way. Besides, there’s a few other stops I want to make.”

She has to refrain from groaning. She’s never been one for shopping, especially not blind shopping like she’s doing right now. She usually knows what she wants and gets it all under ten minutes, but she knew that wasn’t going to be the case right now. 

“Hello,” a middle aged woman greets Jughead with a look that makes Betty think she knows exactly who he is. “Can I help you find something?” 

“Yes,” Jughead says with a polite smile. “I have a company dinner tonight and my girlfriend needs a dress for the occasion. Something elegant; classy. I want the prettiest thing you own.” 

The woman looks over to Betty with a frown. Any other day she’d be offended, but right now she totally gets it. She’s currently slouching in a chair, sweats and a hoodie on with her hair in a top knot and a cup of coffee in her hands. She looks like a hot mess, no doubt this woman is wondering what she’s doing with someone like Jughead, who looks like a million bucks even in his jeans and plain back shirt. 

“What about this one?” The lady says as she walks over to a mannequin that has on an ugly ruffled purple dress that Betty wouldn’t get caught dead in. “It’s Gucci and it’s one of our newest arrivals.” 

Jughead makes a face. “Do you have something less… ruffled?” 

Betty snorts. At least he has taste. It might be Gucci, but you couldn’t pay her enough money to wear that thing out in public. 

“Well, what color are you thinking?” The lady asks. Jughead turns back towards Betty and raises an eyebrow, obviously wanting her input. 

“Uh,” she drags out. “Red? Maybe green?” Those are good Christmas colors, basic but good. 

The lady smiles and nods, obviously happy to have some kind of direction to go in. 

“We have a beautiful Akris velvet mini dress,” she announces. She walks off towards the back of the room and emerges a few seconds later with a dress in her hands. “What about this one?” 

Betty looks at it and shrugs. It looks pretty enough, but to be honest, it’s not really her. Granted, nothing in this store is actually her so she can’t really complain. 

“What do you think, love?” Jughead asks. “Do you want to try it on?” 

He looks so excited, nearly bouncing in place as he looks at Betty and the dress, so she nods. She had suggested that they go to Forever 21 or something, but he wasn’t having any of it. He said he wanted to see her in “something worthy”, whatever that meant. She figures she could at least play dress up for him. 

She makes to grab the dress, but the lady pulls it away from her with a stern look. Betty’s about to ask her what her issue is before she realizes that she’s frowning at the coffee cup that’s still in her hand. 

“Oh,” she says quietly, handing the cup to Jughead. “Here.” 

The lady finally hands over the dress and Betty walks to the dressing room. It takes a while to actually get the damn dress on because it’s so tight and she doesn’t have her best friend to zip it up for her like usual, but she does eventually get it on. 

It looks nice on her, she’ll admit it. The material feels amazing against her skin and it’s probably the nicest thing she’s ever worn but she doesn’t _love_ it. She realizes that she has literally no room to talk about loving it or not, she should be thankful to even be in something this nice, but she can’t help but feel weird in it. 

Still though, she walks outside to show Jughead. 

He immediately turns to look at her when he hears the dressing room door open. 

“Thoughts?” She asks with an uneasy smile as she holds her arms out and does a little twirl. Jughead doesn’t smile at her like she thought he would. 

“You don’t like it,” he says. 

“Not really,” she whispers. “I’m sorry. I know that’s really selfish, but--.” 

“Hey, hey,” he stops her. “That’s not selfish. I want to buy you something you’ll love, Betty. If you don’t like this dress then you don’t like it.” He turns back towards the lady. “Do you have anything in red?”

She thinks it over before nodding. “We just got a new Valentino in. It’s beautiful, but it’s a pretty penny.” 

Jughead just purses his lips. “I’m sure it is. May we see it? And could you bring along some heels in a size seven as well please.” 

“Valentino?” Betty whisper yells once the lady is gone. “Jughead, that’s way too much.” 

He just gives her a look. “Betty, I have more money than I know what to do with. I want to spoil you, I want to get you something nice that I can admire you in.” He grabs her hand and runs his thumb against her skin. “Let me buy you this and stop complaining.” 

She just rolls her eyes. “You know I’ll probably end up spilling wine or something on it. I’m a mess.”

“Well, I guess it’s a good thing the dress is red, isn’t it? It’ll blend right in.” 

Betty laughs and shakes her head, but she doesn’t have time to say anything else before the lady is coming back, holding a dress carefully in her hands like it’ll fall apart if any part of it touches the ground. 

“Wow,” she whispers, the word leaving her lips before she can think twice about it. The dress is red sequined and it sparkles brightly as the lady brings it over, demanding the attention of everyone around it. Immediately she falls in love with it’s beauty. 

“This will look lovely on you,” the lady says. “You’re tall enough so it won’t look like it’s dragging and your frame is absolutely perfect for it.” She walks into the dressing room and places it onto the hanger gently. “Try these shoes on.” She hands over a pair of Christian Louboutin peep toe pumps and Betty has to refrain from doing something stupid like kissing them. 

“Um,” she drags out. “Could you- could you help me put the dress on please?” The last thing she wants to do is accidentally rip it or something as equally terrible. 

“Of course!” The lady says, a little too excitedly. “Let me know whenever you need help. I’ll be right outside of the door.” She ushers Betty inside of the dressing room and closes the door behind her. 

She slips off the dress she had been wearing and hangs it back up carefully before running a hand over the red Valentino dress. Even the fabric feels expensive as hell. 

“Put the heels on first!” The lady says. “It’ll be easier that way.” 

So Betty does. She slips the heels on carefully and may or may not admire herself in the mirror once they’re on. She’s never understood why men like to see women in heels and nothing else, but as she looks at herself in the dressing room mirror now, she kind of gets it. Immediately she feels more confident, sexier, and she can’t wait for Jughead to see her in the shoes and nothing but the shoes. 

She grabs the dress off of the hanger and carefully slips it on, cautious as not to step on it with her heels. She carefully avoids looking at herself in the mirror and once it’s fully on, she calls out to the lady to zip her up. 

“Oh,” she gasps once she finishes zipping it up. “You look so beautiful. You’ll be the envy of the party.” 

Betty has to refrain from snorting at the words. She’s not _Cinderella_ , but she just smiles before walking out of the dressing room to look at herself in the bigger full length mirror outside. 

Her mouth drops open as she looks at her reflection. The dress is stunning, there’s no denying that, but there’s also no denying that the lady had been right. The dress looks perfect on her, as if it was made specially just for her. 

“Come, come,” the lady says, dragging her by her hand. “Your boyfriend is going to fall in love with you all over again.” 

Fall in love… Betty wants to tell her that they aren’t quite there yet, but there’s no need for that. The lady doesn’t need to know that at all. So instead she just allows herself to be pulled, working on not tripping over air. 

Jughead’s sitting down on the chair she’d been in earlier, he’s scrolling through his phone, probably looking at some work emails, and her cup of coffee is in his other hand. At the sound of Betty’s heels clicking against the floor, he turns around. 

His eyes widen and then he stands up out of the chair, looking her over completely. She smiles and does a little twirl in the dress. It doesn’t flair out dramatically or anything, but it’s still fun to do. 

“Thoughts?” She asks again once she’s done twirling, clasping her hands in front of herself as she waits for him to say something. 

“We’ll take it,” he says after he clears his throat. The lady squeals and claps her hands, before walking away to get a garment bag for it. 

“Like it?” Betty asks, shy smile on her face. 

“You’re beautiful,” he tells her. “The dress is gorgeous, but on you? It’s perfect.” 

“Cheese Ball,” she teases, but a blush floods her cheeks at the compliment. 

“Do you like the shoes?” He asks. Betty smirks and lifts up the bottom of the dress to show him how they look on her. “Oh yeah,” he nods. “We definitely like the shoes. Need help taking that off?” He winks at her and she just snorts. 

“Tonight,” she whispers with a flirty smile before walking back off to the dressing room. 

 

The “few stops” that Jughead had been talking about was actually a random stop to a small luxury lingerie store that Betty immediately turns red at. 

“Juggie,” she hisses. “Why are we here?” 

“Didn’t I tell you I’d buy you new panties?” 

“Okay, so why can’t we go to like Target or something? A Victoria’s Secret if we’re feeling frisky, but come on! This is way too much.” 

He just smirks at her, swinging an arm around her waist as he brings her closer to him to whisper in her ear. “If you don’t get your cute butt inside of the store, I’ll make it so red you won’t even be able to _wear_ panties.” Betty’s mouth drops open but when she turns to look at Jughead, he’s just smiling at her like he hasn’t just dropped a new kink on her out of nowhere. 

“Okay,” she says to herself, walking inside of the store quickly. 

Lingerie sets are set up on mannequins; silk and satin surround her and the walls of the store are a deep red. All in all, she feels like she’s just entered some kind of underground sex slave store except way classier and cleaner. 

“Hello,” a petite blonde purrs at her. “I’m Brooke. This is Eva,” she points to a tall, gorgeous brunette, “can we help you with anything?” 

The sound of Jughead’s shoes against the floor echo off the walls and Brooke and Eva look up at him, eyes narrowing before they give each other a smirk. 

“Something for the bedroom perhaps?” Eva asks with a distinct French accent that has Betty floored, but then again that might just be because of the shameless question she’s just asked. 

“Um,” she draws out. 

“Your best sellers,” Jughead says, taking charge as always. “Price isn’t a concern.”

“Of course,” Brooke says. “I’ll take her measurements. Any colors in specific?” 

“Black,” he says, smirking. “White, too.” 

“Classic,” Eva smiles in approval. “I’m on it.” She turns and walks away, swaying her hips and Betty wonders what it’s like to be so effortlessly sexy. 

Brooke leads her to the dressing room and orders her to take off her shirt before she pulls out a piece of measuring tape and wraps it around Betty’s chest. 

“You two are a very attractive couple,” she says randomly, taking Betty off guard. 

“Thank you.” 

Brooke just hums out before pulling away. Eva pops back up then, multiple sets of lingerie in her hands. 

“I’d start with the one on top first,” she says, biting her lip. “It’s one of my favorites.” 

Betty just nods, taking ahold of the clothing gently before closing the door to the dressing room. The first item isn’t even an underwear set, it’s some kind of bodysuit and she silently curses Jughead. She’s sure this had been his plan all along. 

The tag on the back of the bodysuit reads La Perla and she makes sure not to check the price tag; she’ll probably demand they leave right there and then if she sees the cost of this thing. Still though, she tries it on with a frown. 

It’s a bit hard to get on and it even comes with matching stockings and little suspenders to connect the two. She rolls her eyes, wondering why she’s even entertaining any of this even though she already knows the answer to that. She knows it will drive Jughead wild, which is the only reason why she’s trying any of this on. 

She looks in the mirror and her face turns red. She looks absolutely scandalous. The sexiest thing she’s ever owned was a black thong from Victoria’s Secret and that was nothing compared to this. 

She doesn’t even think as she pulls her phone out of the pocket of her sweats, pulling up her camera to take a picture to send to Veronica. 

**Betty: LOOK WHAT JUGHEAD IS TRYING TO BUY ME OMFG!!!!**

She paces the dressing room floor, waiting for a text back which comes in less than thirty seconds. 

**Veronica: BIIIIIIITCH???? Is that LA PERLA? I KNOW THAT DESIGN WTF**

**Veronica: YOU LOOK SO HOT, UMMM YES GIRL**

**Veronica: YOU BETTER BUY THAT, YOU WILL LITERALLY OWN HIS ASS FOREVER IF YOU WEAR THAT IN FRONT OF HIM**

**Veronica: Can you ask him to buy me something? :’)**

Betty just scoffs before sending a bunch of little exclamation points followed by the exasperated emoji. 

**Veronica: Soooo…. Is that a yes?**

Betty laughs before tossing her phone back onto her sweats which lay on the floor in a lump. Veronica has a point. She does actually look kind of nice in it and Jughead probably would really love her in it.

“Alright Cooper,” she whispers to herself. “If he wants to play this game then let’s play it.” 

She takes off the bodysuit and grabs the next set, a black lace bra with underwear to match.

 

They look like the picture perfect family as they enter the party, which is at the ballroom of some hotel with a name that Betty doesn’t even try to pronounce. 

Veronica had come over that afternoon to help with her makeup and hair, pinning her golden locks into a milkmaid braid as she claimed it would keep the attention on her dress. Her best friend had had a near heart attack when Betty had shown her exactly what she would be wearing that night, followed by a million and one questions about why she had been lingerie shopping. It had been an interesting conversation to say the least. 

Veronica had been a big help, though. She was used to fancy parties, so she’d given Betty a few tips and pointers, not that she’d need them. Standing by Jughead’s side, she didn’t really feel like she had to pretend to be someone else. 

Jughead was dressed in a simple gray suit with an actual suit vest on and Betty was swooning at the sight of him. Even little Jacob was dressed in a cute matching suit of his own. Jughead had planned for him to just wear jeans and a shirt, but he’d said he wanted to “match with daddy” and well, who would refuse that? 

Jacob’s holding onto her hand as they walk more into the room. He’d told her earlier that she’d looked pretty and had taken a liking to the way her dress sparkled, often reaching out to play with it. 

A couple of people come up to Jughead as they see him, greeting him and kissing Betty’s cheek as she’s introduced to them. She meets an old man and his wife, two brothers, and a single mother. Everyone’s really nice to her and when they go sit down at one of the tables, she’s already feeling a million times better. 

“Are you thirsty?” Jughead asks her when they’ve sat down. Jacob has run off with a little girl she assumes is Emily, to go play with some of the other kids that are there and it’s just the two of them right now. “Or hungry?” They’d gotten there pretty late so food’s already been served and Betty just nods. Jughead kisses her forehead before telling her that he’ll be back in a minute. 

She doesn’t feel as awkward as she might have before. Instead she strikes up a conversation with an older couple sitting at the table next to them. Soon though someone coughs next to her, tearing her attention away from the Meyer’s and when she looks up, she sees Heather standing in front of her. 

She looks gorgeous, Betty can’t even deny it. She’s in a floor length, classic black dress and her hair is curled and falling in waves around her face. Betty has the urge to try to trip her.

“Hello,” she greets, voice laced with false kindess. “I just wanted to come say hi to you and apologize for the way I talked to you before. We’ve had women come into the office before, one night stands or past flings, and it’s always such a hassle to get rid of them. I’m protective of Jughead. I’m sure you can understand.” 

Except she doesn’t understand. She doesn’t understand at all. Why on earth would Jughead’s secretary be protective over him? That seemed like a little too much for Betty’s liking. She also knows that the only reason Heather mentioned one night stands and past flings was to get a rise out of Betty. She won’t give in that easily, though.

“Well, I can assure you I am neither,” Betty says, voice just as sickly sweet. “And if Jughead has a problem with… unwanted attention, I think I can handle it. I’m the one who’s with him after all.” 

There’s a slight clench in Heather’s jaw, but the smile stays on her face either way. 

“I’m sure. I’ve heard him talk about you a little. You’re Jacob’s teacher, aren’t you?” She asks the question like she’s genuinely interested, but Betty can see right through the act. If they weren’t at Jughead’s company’s party, Betty wouldn’t be sitting here and having this conversation with her at all, but she wasn’t trying to make a scene right now. 

“I am.” 

“How quaint,” she says as she purses her lips. 

Betty’s about to ask her what the hell she’s playing at, when Jughead finally walks back over to the table. 

“We have eggnog!” He says happily as he places a plate of food and two drinks in front of her. “It may or may not be alcoholic considering Reggie’s the one who bought it. Guess we’ll find out.” He sees Heather and smiles at her. “Hey, Heather. The place looks really nice.” 

“Thank you, Mr. Jones,” she smiles as she tucks a piece of her hair behind her ear. “I’m glad you like it.” 

“Wait,” Betty says, frowning. “ _You_ decorated this place?” 

Heather smiles. “Of course. Mr. Jones always puts me in charge of stuff like this. I have impeccable taste after all.” She turns back towards him and places a hand on his arm, capturing his attention once again. The double meaning behind her words doesn’t go unnoticed by Betty. “Do you remember the New Year’s party I threw two years ago at _my_ place?” She puts an emphasis on the two years ago, as if she’s trying to prove a point to Betty that she’s known him longer; as if it makes any difference in the world. 

Jughead just nods, oblivious to all of this and Betty wonders to herself if he actually doesn’t know that his secretary is flirting with him like they’re in some kind of bad porno. Anyone with eyes can tell that she likes him; there’s no way he’s that dense. 

“I do,” he confirms. “One of the best ways I’ve ever spent New Year’s Eve. Reggie made it especially memorable.” He doesn’t elaborate and Heather laughs, making Betty suddenly feel completely left out for the first time all night. 

“Well, I’ll let you two have fun. Save me a dance, Mr. Jones.” She leans in and kisses him on the cheek. It’s the same polite greeting everyone has been doing all night, but this time Betty’s blood boils at the sight. Heather pulls away and leaves without so much as a look in her direction and Betty wonders if the woman has any morals at all. Who flirts with someone’s boyfriend right in front of them? It was so juvenile. 

As soon as she’s gone, Jughead sits down next to Betty with a smile on his face as if none of that had just happened. 

“You do like eggnog, don’t you?” 

“What?” She asks, giving him a look, voice coming out a little annoyed. “Yeah, sure. Whatever.” 

Jughead’s smile falters as he takes in the tone of her voice. “Betts? Is everything alright?” 

She considers just saying yes and chugging the eggnog, praying it’s actually alcoholic. In the end though, her emotions get the best of her and she decides to just say it. It’s better to be honest, isn’t it? 

“You are aware that Heather likes you, aren’t you?” 

Jughead’s eyes widen before he smiles at her weirdly. 

“No, she doesn’t. She’s just my employee, baby.” 

“What does that have to do with anything?” Betty hisses. “You’re really going to sit right here and tell me that you can’t see she’s flirting with you? Jughead,” she gives him an unimpressed look. 

This time Jughead laughs and she has to refrain from tossing the eggnog into his face. 

“So what if she likes me? Do you think I care?” He toys with one of the strands of Betty’s hair that dangles near her chin. “I’m yours, nothing’s going to change that.” 

He says it so softly and sincerely that the anger and annoyance she’d been feeling just a minute ago fades away completely. 

“She’s very rude,” Betty continues, deciding to just say it all while they’re still talking about it. “I don’t like her.” 

“You sound like a teenager,” Jughead laughs. 

“Sorry we can’t all be old men.” The words aren’t said with malice though, she’s smiling now even if she’s still a little upset at the whole ordeal. 

“You don’t have to like her,” Jughead reminds her, meaning it completely. “She’s nobody to you; to _us_. She’s completely irrelevant in all of this.”

Betty sighs. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have even said anything.”

“Hey, hey. No. That’s fine. Besides, you’re cute when you’re jealous.” Betty glares at him and he just smirks. “Seriously though, Betty. You never have to worry about another girl. You’re it for me. Okay?” 

Her stomach flutters at the words and she nods. “Okay.” 

“Good,” he settles into his seat next to her. “You look very beautiful tonight, in case I didn’t already tell you. That dress was made for you.” 

“Guess now I have to worry about spilling eggnog on it, huh?” 

Jughead laughs and brings his lips closer to her ear. “Even if you did, I know the restrooms here lock. We could always go and clean you up, get you out of it.” Betty shivers at his words; at the way his voice lowers an octave. 

“Jug,” she whispers, pulling away from him slightly. Ever since they’d slept together, she’s reminded constantly of the way he’d felt inside of her, the way he’d touched her and how they moved against each other like they were made just for the other. 

“Mhm?” 

She gives him a look, eyes dark and lips parted. She’s trying to convey a single thought into the look and it must work because Jughead smirks at her before turning around. She follows his gaze, trying to see what he’s looking for. Sure enough, both of their eyes lock onto Jacob, who’s still playing with a group of kids, an older couple watching over them with smiles on their faces.

He stands up and holds his hand out for her, squeezing it as he leads her out of the ballroom and up the stairwell. It feels like something straight out of a movie, both of them smiling as Jughead leads the way, Betty holding her dress up as she tries not to trip over it in her heels.

When they get to the top of the the stairs, Jughead whirls around and places both of his hands onto Betty’s cheeks, bringing her closer to him as he kisses her deeply. She leans into the kiss, eyes closed and heart full, placing her own hands on his arms. 

“You are so beautiful,” he whispers against against her lips. “I wish you could see yourself the way that I see you.” 

Betty feels like she’s in a daze, his words wrapping around her as she stares into his eyes. A single phrase hangs off of her lips, but before she can say anything, he’s backing away and leading the way once again. 

The restrooms here are absolutely beautiful, but Betty hadn’t been expecting anything less. Everything is white inside of it and there’s a large full length mirror in it that Jughead leads her over to.

He stands behind her, hands curled around her upper arms tenderly. 

“You are so perfect,” he whispers to her but she shakes her head. 

“I don’t want to be perfect,” she tells him. 

“Okay,” he says lightly. “Then I’ll say this: you were made for me, Betty Cooper.” He trails his fingers down her arms slowly. He leans down and presses a kiss into the crook of her neck and her eyelids flutter at the touch. “I could spend the rest of my life like this; staring at your beauty and wondering what I did to deserve someone like you.” 

“I…” she whispers, but nothing else comes out. 

“Look,” he says, commanding her attention once again. He tilts her chin up and straight, forcing her to look into the mirror they currently stand in front of. “Can’t you see? We fit together so well.” And they do. Their bodies line right up and she rests against Jughead’s chest as if she belongs there. They’re a stark contrast in a lot of ways, but right now? Right now they look as if they were always supposed to be right here with each other. Jughead kisses the top of her head. “You never have to worry about anything or anyone. There is no one else in this world for me. I’m yours; now and in whatever other universe there is out there. I will _always_ be yours.” 

Betty whirls around, pressing their lips together harshly. Jughead wraps his arms around her, pressing her chest closer to his until there’s nothing left between them. Still though, it’s not close enough and Betty needs so much more.

He pulls away and gets on his knee. Betty’s about to ask him what he’s doing when he reaches for the bottom of her dress and starts to pick it up, bunching it up around her waist. 

“It really is a pretty dress,” he says to himself mostly. “But I just want you out of it.” He kisses her legs, all the way up to the lace of the new black panties she’s wearing. She’s already wet, she had been since they’d gotten in here and he’d started whispering into her ear. She doesn’t need foreplay right now. 

“I need you,” she whispers to him. “Please.” 

That seems to be all he needs to hear as he picks her up and walks forward, placing her onto the counter and pulling her a little closer to him so that she’s barely sitting on it at all. She watches in slight fascination as he undoes his pants and pulls himself out of them. 

A smile plays on his lips and he looks up at her, the boyish look she’s grown to love on it once again. 

“Are you a fan of these?” He asks as he runs a finger down her slit through her panties. 

She rolls her eyes. “Yes, so don’t you dare.” 

He laughs before sliding them off of her instead of ripping them like he was obviously thinking of doing. She expects him to toss them to the side or something, but instead he just tucks them into his pocket. Teasingly, he runs a single finger through her folds. When he pulls away, he brings the finger up to her lips. Her eyes widen as she realizes what he wants her to do, but she doesn’t hesitate as she leans forward and wraps her lips around his finger, sucking on it. She can taste herself lightly and it drives her a little more wild than it probably should. Eventually she pulls away with a pop and Jughead looks at her with lust filled eyes. 

“God,” he breathes out. “You’re everything.” 

And then, before she can even think about it, he’s pressing himself into her. The feeling of him stretching her out is like nothing else she’s ever felt and she moans out as he does. When he finally gets fully inside of her, he lets out a low curse. 

“We’ve got to be quick, baby,” he tells her and she nods. No one can know that they’ve snuck off to have sex. She doesn’t think that would go over so well with the guests. 

“Then hurry up and fuck me,” she instructs him, voice sultry. 

It’s all the permission he needs before he begins to thrust into her quickly and roughly. She wraps her legs around his waist tighter, trying to keep a hold of him as she leans back into the mirror behind her. He moves in and out of her at a pace that feels so good, it has her eyes rolling into the back of her head. Jughead fucks like it’s the last thing he’ll ever do and he does it _well_. She clenches around him purposefully and he groans out at it before looking up at her with dark eyes. 

“You’re a fucking minx,” he pants out. 

“Can’t say I’ve ever been called that before,” she says, just as out of breath as he is. 

“Good,” he hisses. “I’m the only one who will ever see you like this.” He kisses her, but it’s more teeth than it is lips. “You’re mine.”

She nods, a silent agreement, too wound up to properly think. 

“Say it,” he instructs, lips right against hers. “Tell me you’re mine.” 

She opens her mouth, but no words come out. He’s fucking her so quickly now that she can feel an orgasm starting to build up. 

“Tell me,” he whispers again, this time lighter. 

“I’m yours,” she finally breathes out. “I’m yours.” 

And that’s all it takes. Jughead comes undone just as Betty does. He digs his fingers into her skin and she throws her head back, shivering as she clenches around him and then lets go completely. 

Once they’ve regained their senses, Jughead tucks himself back into his pants with a smile. “Miss Cooper stopping for a quickie in the restroom? Now _that’s_ scandalous.” 

Betty just laughs at him. “You’re corrupting me.” 

“In all the best ways possible.”

She hops off of the countertop and pulls her dress down, smoothing it over so that it isn’t completely obvious to know what they just got up to. 

“Um, Juggie?” She asks. “Can I have my underwear back now?” 

He smirks. “Sure you can. When we get home.” 

Betty glares at him, but the teasing smile on his face makes her want to smile along with him. 

“Is there a reason why you have some sort of fixation with my panties?” 

“Perhaps,” he says, but that’s all he has to say before he’s walking back over to the door, unlocking it. “You coming?” 

She rolls her eyes at him, but still she smiles as she walks over to him, holding onto his hand and once again letting him lead the way.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Few things: 
> 
> This chapter was a fucking NIGHTMARE to write and I don't really like it (but that might be because of how much shit it's been giving me) so I hope you guys at least like it. 
> 
> This chapter was originally supposed to start off with Betty and Veronica Christmas shopping so... I hope you guys like this intro a little more. ;)
> 
> I cut this chapter short. I was originally going to add in Veronica and Archie meeting FP and JB and blahblahblah, but I just really wanted to get this out because it's been so long and now I just don't really have an interest in writing that actual scene. However, if you guys DO want to see that then let me know and I'll write it. 
> 
> Anyway... enjoy!!!!

On Christmas Day it snows.

For a while there, Betty had kind of accepted the fact that this year’s Christmas would not be a white one. As soon as she had woken up though, wrapped around in Jughead’s arms and the warm long sleeve he’d lent her, she had known that it was. 

Carefully and quietly, she unwraps herself from Jughead’s arms and pauses as he clears his throat in his sleep before turning over onto his side to face away from her. She walks over to the balcony connected to the room and unlocks it before stepping outside. 

Jughead’s bedroom faces the vast backyard and Betty smiles as she looks out at the snow that covers the once green ground. The top of Jacob’s treehouse is covered with snow as well and everything just looks so beautiful that she considers taking a picture of it. Instead she tiptoes back inside and crawls into the bed. 

Jughead doesn’t even flinch at her movement, but she knows by now that he’s a pretty heavy sleeper. She brushes his hair away from his face and places a kiss onto his forehead. He twitches at the touch and the corner of his lips turn up but he otherwise stays asleep. 

“Juggie,” she whispers as she plays with his hair. “Wake up.” He groans and mumbles something and she laughs lightly. “Come on, it’s snowing. Come look.” 

“Fuck snow,” he grumbles out as he tosses an arm over his eyes. His voice is laced with sleep and Betty bites her lip at the sound of it. She’s always had a thing for the deep drawl that would escape him during the early hours of the morning. 

With a smirk she nips at his ear, loving the way he moans even though his eyes stay shut. 

“Still not waking up?” She whispers to him. He shakes his head and the smirk on her face grows. “Okay then.” 

She throws the covers over herself and straddles his legs, kissing down his chest and lowering her body onto his. As she kisses down his body, she feels the vibrations coming from his chest as he moans lightly at her actions. 

She reaches the waistband of the pants he’d worn to sleep and gently she pulls them down, releasing him from them. She’s not surprised to see that he’s already half hard, although she is a bit delighted at the sight. It’s nice to know that she can turn him on so easily. 

She takes him into her palm and pumps her fist around him a few times before leaning forward and licking alongside his length. She hears him let out a sharp hiss as she twirls her tongue around his tip. She repeats her actions a few more times; giving him only so much and yet not enough. She gets what she had been after whenever she feels his hands move underneath the covers to reach for her. 

She grins as his hand curls around in her hair, pulling just hard enough that it hurts but she loves the sensation that erupts throughout her scalp. 

“Come on,” he teases, using the words she had told him earlier. His voice is still deep with sleep, but there’s a teasing tone to it now. “Make me feel good, baby.” 

It’s all she needs to finally wrap her lips around him as she bobs her head all the way down until she can feel him against the back of her throat. She holds him there for a while even as her eyes start to water and it’s only when he lifts her head up gently that she allows herself to be pulled up. She spares a glance up towards him and his eyes are lidded as he looks back down at her, a lazy but dazed look on his face. 

She gathers up a slow and steady pace as she hollows her cheeks around him, occasionally pulling off to lick down his length and tease the tip of his cock. After a few more minutes of this, she finally feels Jughead’s hands tighten in her hair as he lazily bucks his hips up, fucking her mouth on his own. Her jaw goes slack as he comes down her throat. 

He finally releases her and as she sits up straight, he reaches down from the bed and grabs a towel off of the floor. 

“You can just spit it-,” his voice trails off as he holds the towel out to her because she sticks out her tongue, showing him that she’s swallowed everything. His eyes widen before he smirks. “Jesus Christ, Betty. You’re going to be the death of me.” 

“I sure hope not,” she says with a smile, the taste of him on her tongue fueling her energy. “I have plans for you.” 

“Plans?” He asks, but he’s looking at her like she’s his prey and he’s about to pounce any moment. “What might those be?” 

Betty makes her way up the bed and leans against the headboard, spreading her legs open and smirking at him. She runs her hand down her panties and bites her lip at the way he looks at her; completely dazed and enamored. 

“I think you can guess, Mr. Jones.” 

He licks his lips and Betty nods slowly at him, playing with the lace on her panties. 

“They’re the new ones you got me,” she says softly. “Do you like them?” He nods, but doesn’t say anything. His eyes just stay fixated on her fingers. “How much do you like them?” 

“So much,” he says and his voice cracks. He reaches out to try and touch but she pushes his hands away. He looks at her, affronted and she just smiles. 

“You like me in them?” She asks, sultrily. 

“I do.” 

“Should I just stay in them?” 

“But-.” 

“Should I even let you touch me?” She asks as she moves the lace over to the side, exposing herself to him completely. His eyes darken as does the look on his face. He’s laying on his stomach in front of her and from where she’s sitting, she feels powerful and in charge. It’s different and it’s exhilarating. “After all, you didn’t want to get up with me. Why should I let you touch me?” 

“Please,” he begs, looking up at her wildly. 

“Please what?” 

“Let me touch you.” 

She trails a finger down down her clit, lightly rubs at the bundle of nerves there and her legs fall even more open. Slowly, almost experimentally, she brings her finger up to her mouth and sucks on it lightly, keeping her eyes locked on Jughead’s the entire time. When it’s wet enough, she brings it down and pushes it inside of herself gently, letting out a low moan at the touch. That’s all it takes. 

Jughead moves forward quickly like a serpent, grabbing her thighs and rolling her over so that she’s straddled across his face as he lays back into the bed. She shrieks and looks down at him but he’s grinning wickedly up at her. 

“You’re so cute,” Jughead laughs. “Sexy as hell, Cooper, but my bedroom; my rules. I want you writhing underneath my mouth,” he smirks, “or over it, either way will do. Don’t you want that, too?” His lips are pressed right against her and she shivers at the way his words seem to vibrate through her. “Don’t you?” 

“Yes,” she whispers, arching her back and trying to press down onto his tongue. He holds her still in place, though. 

“I think you can do better than that,” he teases as he brings his head up and flicks his tongue gently at her clit. She lets out a tiny yelp, but he pulls away before she can do anything else. “Tell me how bad you want it.” 

“Please,” she begs, just as he had a few moments earlier. “Please, Juggie. I need it.” 

“You’re so beautiful when you beg,” he all but purrs out at her, tilting his head as he looks up at her and Betty is about to cry out in frustration, needing him to do something, _anything_. 

She’s just about to curse at him to hurry up, whenever he finally leans up and begins to move his tongue against her like it’s the last thing he’ll ever do. Her body falls forward and she has to reach out and grip onto the headboard in front of her. His face is buried so deep against her that she can feel his nose touching her skin and something about that drives her wild. 

He doesn’t go slow like she’d thought he would, instead his tongue moves against her rapidly and rushed and she can feel an orgasm creeping up on her quickly. 

“Juggie,” she whimpers as her legs tighten around his head. 

And then he pulls away. Betty actually does cry out as she looks down at him in utter betrayal.

“Ride my face,” he pants out before she can say anything. 

“I’ve never,” she starts but trails off. She’s literally sitting on his face right now, what is there to be afraid of? He just smiles at her, losing the cocky appearance he’d had so far, and it’s enough for her to remember who she’s with. “Okay.” 

She lowers herself back down onto his face and he sticks his tongue out. Any other time she’d probably laugh, but she does the exact opposite as she finally comes into contact with his tongue and feels it press against her. Cautiously, she rolls her hips against his tongue. It feels weird, different, to be the one controlling everything but she looks down and he winks up at her, making her feel more confident. She presses her hands back onto the headboard and throws her head back as she picks up a steady pace, rolling her hips back and forth against him. Every now and then he’ll flick his tongue lightly to tease her. It’s a different pace from earlier and this time it takes a little longer for her orgasm to build up, when it does though, her movements begin to get sloppier and sloppier. 

She lets out a staggered breath and Jughead runs his hand up her leg before resting it on her ass. He squeezes it roughly and Betty lets out a gasp before he brings his hand back and brings it down harshly on the already red skin there. A shock of pain erupts throughout her body before pleasure completely takes over and she yells out and comes completely undone as she finishes riding out her orgasm. She feels like she’s seeing stars and Jughead grips her hips as he begins to eat her out like he had been doing earlier; face buried deep against her and tongue moving in an almost punishable way. 

“Jug,” she pants as she becomes too sensitive, “Juggie, Jughead!” Tears gather up in her eyes, the feeling being _too much_ but also amazing. She’s feeling way too many things at once but before she can try to focus on any of them, Jughead pulls away from her and rolls them over so that he’s hovering over her. 

“Don’t ever tease me again,” he whispers against her lips, kissing her deeply. 

“You liked it,” she pants out when he pulls away. He just hums against her, pulling her body close to his and resting his head against her shoulder. He’s heavy against her but Betty loves the feeling of his weight on her. She runs her fingers through his hair lovingly for a few minutes as they lay there in a blissful silence. 

“Come look at the snow,” she whispers into his ear. “And then we can go downstairs and make some breakfast for Jacob.” 

Jughead pushes himself up and smiles gently down at her. 

“I’m happy you’re here with me,” he tells her. “It feels… right.” 

Betty just nods, not even beginning to explain just how _right_ it actually does feel being here with him. 

“There’s nowhere else I’d rather be.”

 

A few hours later Betty sits with on the floor next to Jughead’s feet with Jacob on her lap. JB and FP are sitting on the couch across from them and watching as he opens up yet another one of his presents from the endless pile under the tree. 

The living room floor is starting to look like a toy store with the amount of presents thrown all over it, but Jacob’s smile and reaction is one of genuine surprise and thankfulness everytime. 

“Look,” he squeals as he throws wrapping paper behind him and lifts up a box that’s of a track set. 

“Ooooh,” Betty drags out as he thrusts the box into her face. 

“That one’s from me,” JB calls out as he lifts up another wrapped package that’s a bit smaller. Jacob unwraps it and takes out a box of different colored chalk. “I think you have more than enough gadgets. You gotta grow up like I did, kid. That means as soon as this snow clears up, we’re covering your dad’s driveway in poorly down art.” 

“Cool!” Jacob grins and Betty knows that he means it. 

“I’m not cleaning it up,” Jughead mumbles as he tosses JB a glare but she just grins at him in response. 

Jacob wiggles his way out of Betty’s lap and walks over to the tree and picks up a larger box. 

“That’s mine,” Betty tells him. She had known right away what she wanted to get Jacob. Just like she had with his birthday, she focused on what she knew he loved and went from there. 

Upon hearing that Betty’s the one who bought him the gift, Jacob’s entire face lights up and he immediately begins to unwrap it. When all the wrapping paper is around him, his eyes widen as he looks down at the gift in front of him. 

As far as gifts go, it’s pretty simple. It’s an art set, full of different colored pencils and markers and even paints and canvases, but she knows how much he’ll appreciate it. 

“I know how much you like coloring,” Betty says with a smile, “so I figured you might like to try painting sometime.” 

Jacob runs up to her and throws his arms around her, making Jughead reach out to grab the gift so that it doesn’t fall. She wraps her arms back around him just as tightly. 

“Thank you,” he whispers in her ear. “It’s the best gift.” 

“You’re welcome, buddy. Maybe you can paint me something whenever you start to get the hang of it.”

Jacob nods sharply before his attention is pulled back to the rest of his gifts. 

“That was nice of you,” Jughead whispers to her as FP helps Jacob untie a box. “You really understand him. I think that might have been his favorite one yet.”

Betty just shrugs, but the smile on her face stays put; happy that she’s able to give Jacob something that he loves. 

After Jacob’s finished opening all his presents, they decide to all watch Frosty the Snowman. Veronica and Archie are coming over around two to meet everyone and have lunch and Betty’s more than excited for it. She had spent an excessive amount of time cleaning up the dining room and setting up Christmas decorations so that everything looked more festive, something that JB had teased her endlessly about. 

When Frosty ends and Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer starts, Jughead nudges Betty with his foot from where she’s sitting at his feet. She looks up at him and he nods with his head for her to follow him. They sneak away from everyone and he leads her up the staircase back to his bedroom. 

“I got you something,” Jughead tells her once they enter his bedroom and he closes the door behind them. “I figured I’d give it to you in private though.” 

Betty smiles, not really wanting to know what his idea of a gift is. “I got you something too.” 

“You didn’t need to do that, Betty.” 

She didn’t, she knows that, but it’s not like she had gone all out or something. She had always been someone who enjoyed getting people sentimental gifts, one’s that had more meaning to them than numbers on the pricetag. 

She watches as Jughead walks over to his closet and pulls out a box. 

“Ju-.” 

“Before you say anything,” he tells her, “you don’t actually get to keep this gift. It’s on a loan, so don’t freak out.” 

Her eyes widen in fear, knowing that anything “on a loan” is definitely not cheap. She’s seen enough movies to know exactly what she’s about to witness. 

“Jughead,” she whispers, about to freak out, but before she can say anything else he opens up the box and shows her what’s inside. Her mouth actually drops open as she looks at the contents inside. A beautiful cluster diamond necklace is staring back at her with cascading earrings to match. She reaches out to touch them and practically gasps at how _sharp_ the diamonds feel under her touch. 

“This is…,” she starts, but doesn’t finish. She actually doesn’t have anything to say about it except: “Jughead, it’s beautiful. It’s too much. I can’t-.” 

“You can,” he insists gently. “And you will. You see, I have some business to take care of in New York during New Years weekend, meetings and dinners, and I was hoping that you’d do the honors of being my date.” 

“New York?” Betty asks. She’s never been before and she can’t help the excitement that bubbles throughout her as she imagines visiting the city during one of it’s more iconic times. 

Jughead nods. “So will you?”

Betty laughs, a happy and carefree thing. “Of course! Thank you so much.” She tosses her arms around his neck to bring him in for a hug and he chuckles as he hugs her back. “My gift seems so silly now.” 

“Well, you still have time to rethink that statement,” Jughead says. “There’s another part to this gift.” He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a much smaller box that makes Betty gasp. “It’s not a ring,” he says with an eyeroll. “I’m not that insane.” 

Her cheeks redden. “Okay, good.” Despite whatever she feels for Jughead, she’d probably take off running to the hills if he showed her a diamond ring right now. 

“That being said, if you feel like this is a step too soon or anything, just tell me. I’ve been known for jumping the gun and well, I just really like having you around and I actually think I might lo-.” 

Betty laughs, unaware that she’s cutting him off of anything important. “Juggie, just show me what’s inside of the box.” 

He smiles at her, a bit thrown off, but he shakes his head and grins before handing her over the neatly wrapped box. 

Betty unwraps it carefully and opens it slowly, gasping when she sees what’s inside. 

“I know,” Jughead speaks quickly. “I actually wanted to get you a new car because no offense but yours is terrible, Betty. Like I genuinely fear for your life when you tell me you’re driving it, but Reggie said that was a bit too much but then again Reggie doesn’t really know the first thing about girlfriends so maybe a car would have been better?” He reaches out and takes the box from her hands. “You know what, I’ll just take this back and then tomorrow we can go look at cars. Would you like a Lexus? Or maybe even an Audi. You know what, I’ll buy you a Mercedes too while we’re at it. I can-.”

“Jughead!” She yells, trying to get him to calm down. “Give me back my gift please.” His face looks torn like he almost doesn’t want to, but slowly he hands it back over to her, the fearful look on his face growing. 

She holds the cold metal in her hand and smiles. A key. He’d gotten her a key. 

“You really mean it?” She asks him. “You really want me to have this?” 

He nods, seeming to have calmed down. “I really do. You’re here more often than not and I just… I really love having you around, Betty. So does Jacob. Everything just feels complete when you’re around, like it all just makes sense.” 

“You’re cheesy,” she teases, “but I like it.” She walks closer to him and presses her lips against his, showing him just how much this means to her. When they pull away she walks over to her bag and pulls out the gift she’s gotten for him. “My gift seems a little more appropriate now.” 

“I’m sure I’d love it even if it were a pair of socks.” 

The both of them laugh as he tears away the wrapping paper to unveil what’s underneath. 

It’s a silver photo frame, simple but pretty. The photograph inside of it is of the two of them with Jacob on his birthday. He’s holding his cake towards the camera and smiling widely as Betty and Jughead crouch behind him, holding his arms steady so the cake doesn’t fall. It looks like they’re a real, proper family and she’d fallen in love with the picture as soon as Veronica had shown her it. 

“You don’t have very many pictures,” Betty reminds him. “I figured that this one would be good to start with.” 

His eyes stay locked on the photograph for a few moments longer before he finally looks up at her and Betty _swears_ that she sees his eyes water, but before she can focus on whether they are or not, he blinks and places the photograph onto the bed. He takes two long strides over to her and places his hands on both of her cheeks, crushing their lips together roughly. It’s the exact opposite of the kiss she had shared with him moments ago, but she melts into it either way. He tastes like eggnog and peppermint and Betty has to wonder if any Christmas will ever top this one. She doesn’t think so. 

“Where have you been?” Jughead whispers against her lips as he presses their foreheads together. 

Betty smiles against his lips. 

“Waiting.”

**Author's Note:**

> i hope you guys like it... 
> 
> here's my [tumblr](http://jugheadszombie.tumblr.com). let me know if you like it. :)


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